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 stru