Novensia: Studia i Materiały (14.2003)

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Fig. 1. The geographical and tectonic location of the island of Marmara: 1 — the island of
Marmara and the ancient Proconnesos; 2 — the lines of the faults

In August 2000, the present authors traveled to the island of Marmara in or-
der to inspect the present condition of the ąuarries and the remnants of the an-
cient facilities, take photographs and make drawings for the documentation, and
collect samples of marble for petrographic, Chemical, X-ray and isotopic tests.
The results of such tests shall provide a basis for comparative studies of the Pro-
connesian marble found at yarious archeological sites.1
Marmara (the ancient Proconnesos) is the largest island in the Sea of Marma-
ra. It is a part of the Turkish territory, and its Turkish name is “Marmara Adasi.”
This mountainous island has an area of 75 sq. km, and is 18 km long (from the
east to the west) and 10 km wide (from the north to the south). Its highest eleva-
tion is 699 m asl. The inland Sea of Marmara, with coasts in north-westem Asia
Minor and the Bałkan Peninsula, is a part of the chain of communicating seas
(the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara and the Mediterranean Sea) which divide
Europę from Asia and Africa. The names of both the sea and the island are de-
rived from the Greek “marmaros,” or “marble.” The ancient Greeks called the
sea “Propontis,” or “the threshold of the Pontos (the Black Sea).” The shape of
the Sea of Marmara is close to an ellipsis. Its length is morę than 200 km, aver-
age depth 250 m, and the maximum depth, 1389 m. The estimated area of the
sea is 1200 sq. km, and its capacity, 30,000 cu. km.
High salinity is characteristic of the sea, amounting to 26%o on the surface
and up to 38%o at the bottom [Encyklopedia 1997, 11-53, 491-500].