exclusively populated the Island. During World War I much of the Greek population was forced off of the Island onto the mainland. And, following the war, as a result of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, all remaining Greeks native to the Island of Marmara emigrated to Greece and other locations around the globe. The Island’s name is derived from the Greek ‘’marmaron’’ and that from ‘’marmaros’’, which means “crystalline rock”, “shining stone” because it is famous for its white marble. Coming from the wealth of great marble deposits that are found on the Island, Marmara Marble has been used in many famous buildings, churches, mosques, palaces as well as sculptures throughout the history of civilization in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. Of the leading examples, the Byzantines used Marmara Marble for the columns in many churches and monasteries such as the marble used in the building of the Hagia Sophia which came from the marble quarries on the Island or the Herculean Sarcophagus of Genzano now in the British Museum dating from Rome in the 2nd A.D. As the preferred medium for Greek and Roman sculptors and architects, marble became in ancient times a cultural symbol of tradition and refined taste. There were an extremely diverse and colorful number of patterns in marble that made it a favorite decorative material. More so whiter shades of marble such as Marmara Marble were prized for use in sculptures since classical times in examples of the most sophisticated art of the ancient world. In the, case of Marmara Marble this preference has to do with Marmara Marble’s relative isotropy and homogeneity, and a relative resistance to shattering allowing for the carving of detailed shapes in three dimensions. Moreover, the low index of refraction of the calcite in Marmara Marble allows light to penetrate several millimeters into the stone before being scattered out, resulting in the characteristic waxy look which gives “life” to marble sculptures of the human body and other organic natural shapes.
THE QUARRIES ON MARMARA ISLAND The Marmara Marble, which was excavated according to specific orders in the classical period, was then worked and carved roughly in the quarries on the Island to ease transportation. Once ready, the marbles were easily sent to their destinations via ships towards all points in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The columns of one of the most important structures from the Hellenistic Period, The Temple of Artemis in the Southern Aegean as well as many of the great monuments in this area were made from the marbles of the island from around 550-560 B.C In the Byzantine period, following the examples of the Greeks, the marble blocks acquired from the quarries were worked and shaped and then transferred to their destinations with ships. The extent of technical expertise and workmanship in the Byzantine period is visible in the 180 ton column with a radius of 4.45 metres that is on the Island still today. This pillar, now situated in the Harmantaş area was made to order but when it started
20. YÜZYILIN BAŞINDA MODERN MERMER ÜRETİM TESİSLERİ / EGE BÖLGESİNDE BULUNAN EFES – ARTEMİS TAPINAĞI’NDAN, ANTİK ROMA SANATINA AİT MARMARA MERMERİ ÖRNEĞİ. MODERN MARBLE PRODUCTION FACILITIES FROM THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY / MARMARA MARBLE IN ANCIENT ROMAN ART FROM THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS IN EPHESUS ON THE AEGEAN.
cracking when being transported, it was abandoned. Later in the Ottoman period stone and marble workmanship reached its peak. Starting in the 15th century to the 19th century, many of the grand Ottoman structures such as Suleymaniye Mosque, Cemberlitas Hamam, Ciragan Palace and Dolmabahce Palace all utilized marbles from the Marmara Island. Many of the architects of the period, especially the leading Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan chose Marmara Marble for columns, floor paving and interior and exterior architectural decoration.
MARMARA MARBLE TODAY The 20th century history of Marmara Marble saw the commercialization of Marmara Marble and its export to markets in northern Europe. The first marble factory was founded in 1912 in the municipality of Saraylar. This factory, which was co-owned by a British and Belgian partnership operated until 1974. Today the municipality of Saraylar has 15% of the marble in Turkey. These marbles are 95% pure and of large crystals. There are 30 block marble quarries and 25 marble production facilities in Saraylar providing marble for national and international markets. Marmara Island still has 1.8 million cubic meters of marble reserve. With 300 thousand cubic meters of block production, the island reserves produce up to one million tons of marble. Employing over 1500 people, the island’s marble production provides 50 million dollars of export to countries such as Syria, Greece, Jordan, Albania, China, Germany, USA and Israel. The marble sold to Israel for example is used for grave stones, a popular and economic use for the Marmara Marble also in the Ottoman period. Today, one of the two municipalities in the Marmara Island, Saraylar organizes ‘’The International Marmara Island Proconnesos Marble and Sculpture Symposium’’ with the collaboration of Mimar Sinan Univesity of Fine Arts in Istanbul. For the last 13 years, the symposium has hosted 70 sculptors from Japan, Bolivia, France, Romania and China to create more than 120 sculptures. Each summer, six artists and two students stay on the island for a month working with the marbles from the island’s quarries. The sculptures created are then displayed in the park between the Saraylar Port and the beach one of the few ‘’sculpture parks’’ in Turkey. MART-NİSAN / MARCH-APRIL 2011 • NATURA 15
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