Marble Distribution Patterns in the Early Byzantine Southwestern Levant: Quantitative and Spatial Approaches

This study applies a quantitative and spatial approach to Early Byzantine marble finds from the southwestern Levant, integrating data into a theoretical model of overland transport costs. While the largest proportion of marble finds is concentrated along the Mediterranean coast near seaports, where transport costs were lower, the most significant variation in different categories of finds occurs farther inland. This unexpected variation suggests that factors beyond transport costs, such as the cultural and religious significance of sites, also influenced the distribution of marble objects. Sites with religious importance, for example, appear to have played a key role in this pattern, highlighting the complex interplay between economic and cultural forces in the Early Byzantine period. This study is the first comprehensive quantitative and spatial analysis of marble finds from the Early Byzantine period, the results of which show the patterns of distribution of imported marbles and reveal factors impacting this trade.1