Poros stone
{{Use American English|date=September 2023}}
{{about|a term used in archaeology|stones on the island of Poros|Poros#Geology}}
File:Funerary stele of poros stone 01.jpg made of {{Not a typo|poros}} stone (Mycenae, 16th century B.C.)]]
Poros stone is a lightweight, soft, marly limestone that was widely used in construction and statues of Ancient Greece.{{sfn | Rhodes | 1987 | p=545}} There is no precise definition of the term, although its roots go to antiquity,{{sfn | Washington | 1923 | p=445}} when it was used to designate any porous building rock,{{sfn | Frazer | 1913 | p=503}} regardless of its origin,{{sfn|Hadjidakis|Matarangas|Varti-Matarangas|2003|p=274}} mostly in contrast with marble. In the 20th century the archeologists continued to use the term in the similarly loose way: "{{Not a typo|poros}} [was] made to include almost all light-coloured stones" that were not definitely marble or hard limestone.{{sfn|Frazer|1913|p=503}}
The {{Not a typo|poros}} stone is one of the chief formations of the Neogene (Miocene or Pliocene) in Greece and it occurs at many places in the Peloponnese, making {{Not a typo|poros}} a common construction stone there.{{sfn|Washington|1923|p=445}}
Even when hardened by exposure to the elements, {{Not a typo|poros}} is much more readily cut with a knife than an ordinary limestone. The ease of working with {{Not a typo|poros}} is the reason for its extensive use as a building stone, especially for foundations and other architectonic parts that are not exposed to view.{{sfn|Washington|1923|p=445}}
Ancient term
The Greek geographer Pausanias uses the term "{{Not a typo|poros}}" to describe the material of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, which was built of local shell limestone, Theophrastus (and Pliny the Elder, who borrows the description) declares it to be a less dense variant of Parian marble. Herodotus also contrasts coarse {{Not a typo|poros}} with fine marble.{{sfn|Frazer|1913|pp=502–503}}
Archeological term
Henry Stephens Washington (a geologist with a major interest in classical studies) declared in 1923:{{sfn|Washington|1923 |p=445}}
{{cquote|[A] non-petrographic archaeologist [while in Greece] will not go far astray if he calls by the name of "{{Not a typo|poros}}" any [...] easily cut, finely granular, yellow, light cream or gray, dull-lustered and somewhat rough building stone, which effervesces with dilute hydrochloric acid or with acetic acid [...] and usually leaves a fine muddy residue}}
Washington describes the differences between {{Not a typo|poros}} and regular limestone as the former being very finely arenaceous or marly; most often of a pale cream color, also light yellow or light gray; somewhat granular but rather soft and friable and
easily cut with a knife, especially when first exposed in the quarry (similar to the volcanic tuffs of Roman Campagna in this last quality, while having nothing in common otherwise).{{sfn|Washington|1923|p=445}}
Hadjidakis et al.,{{sfn|Hadjidakis|Matarangas|Varti-Matarangas|2003|p=274}} while reviewing the ancient quarries, use the term in its ancient sense, to designate any low-density rock, regardless of its petrographical classification.
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- {{cite journal | last=Rhodes | first=Robin F. | title=Rope Channels and Stone Quarrying in the Early Corinthia | journal=American Journal of Archaeology | publisher=University of Chicago Press | volume=91 | issue=4 | date=1987-10-01 | issn=0002-9114 | doi=10.2307/505289 | pages=545–551| jstor=505289 | s2cid=193100232 }}
- {{cite journal | last=Washington | first=Henry S. | title=Excavations at Phlius in 1892 | journal=American Journal of Archaeology | publisher=University of Chicago Press | volume=27 | issue=4 | date=1923-10-01 | issn=0002-9114 | doi=10.2307/497795 | pages=438–446 | jstor=497795 | s2cid=192992684 | url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.2307/497795| url-access=subscription }}
- {{cite conference |last1=Hadjidakis |first1=P. |last2=Matarangas |first2=D. |last3=Varti-Matarangas |first3=M. |title=Ancient quarries in Delos, Greece |date=2003 | conference = Proceedings of the 7th International Conference of Association for the Study of Marble and Other Stones in Antiquity | url = https://www.academia.edu/21454645 | pages=273–278}}
- {{cite book | last=Frazer | first=J.G. | title=Pausanias's Description of Greece | publisher=Macmillan and Company, limited | issue=v. 3 | year=1913 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NcPNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA503 | access-date=2023-09-18}}