Characterization of thin marble slabs cut with Roman water-powered stone saw millsfrom western Asia Minor

This study examined the mineralogical, petrographic, technological, and material properties of thinly cut marble slabs usedin the flooring and cladding of the frigidarium section of a bath constructed in the 2nd century AD in Metropolis, a city that connectedtwo significant centers in Western Asia Minor-Ephesus and Smyrna-during the Roman period. The study also explains the possibletechniques and methods by which these marble slabs could have been cut so thinly. The thickness of the marble slabs used was closelyrelated to their material properties. Bluish grey, with calcite veins with low flexural strength, containing medium to coarse crystallinecalcite veins, and white marbles were cut to a thickness of 10–16 mm. In contrast, blue-grey patterned white marbles with high flexuralstrength and fine to medium crystal structures were cut to a thickness of 3–5 mm. These thin slabs used in the cladding of the bathwere cut with water-powered stone saw mills, recently discovered in Ephesus. It is likely that they were utilized as flooring and claddingduring a later phase of the expansion or repair of the Metropolis bath, possibly in the 6th–7th centuries AD.