Marble Provenance in Late Antique Ravenna. Cultural Connections and Commercial Exchange

At the beginning of the 5th century, Ravenna became a sedes imperii practically overnight, which led to a rapid increase in building activity and demand for precious materials such as coloured stones and white marble. Thanks to its excellent sea connections through its ports, the city maintained dynamic connections with many Mediterranean centres. The determination of provenance of white marble artefacts from Ravenna and its port in Classe by means of combination of petrological and mineralogical-geochemical analyses, confirms the predominance of materials from the East, in particular from the Marmara Island (Proconnesos). This fact correlates directly with previous assumptions about the importation of sarcophagi and architectural elements to Ravenna from the East and via Constantinople in Late Antiquity.