A. B. Yavuz

Aphrodisian marble from the Göktepe quarries: the Little Barbarians, Roman copies from the Attalid Dedication in Athens

The marble of seven under-lifesize sculptures of barbarians, now in the archaeological museums of Naples, Venice and the Vatican, commonly considered to be Roman copies of the Pergamene Lesser Dedication in Athens, comes from the Goktepe marble quarries near Aphrodisias, as is shown by isotopic, electron paramagnetic resonance, trace analyses, and of petrographic data. Since this marble was used mostly by Aphrodisian artists, this finding confirms, on the basis of scientific data, previous hypotheses on the origin of the sculptors who manufactured the statues. Reliable discrimination from similar fine-grained Asiatic marbles, such as Docimium , is possible primarily on the basis of the composition of the Goktepe marbles, which have unusually low concentrations of manganese and high concentrations of strontium. Present knowledge of the history of the quarries and the distribution of their marbles seems to rule out the possibility that the sculptures date from the late Republican period and supports the opinion, previously proposed on stylistic grounds, that they were manufactured in Rome by Aphrodisian sculptors probably during the first half of the second century ad .

Effect of Particle Shape on Durability and Performance of Unbound Aggregate Base

AbstractEffects of particle shape on the durability (as determined from micro-Deval test) and performance [as determined from resilient modulus (MR), and permanent deformation (PD) tests] of unbound aggregate base (UAB) used in road structures have been evaluated in detail. Four crushed aggregates with different mineralogy (but similar angularity) were selected, and each aggregate type was mixed based on varying particle shapes (ranging from flat to equidimensional) to create dense- and open-graded gradations. The findings showed that the increase in flatness ratio affects the compaction and interlocking characteristics of the open-graded UAB materials much more than the dense-graded UAB materials. For open-graded UAB samples, the MR of the aggregates, regardless of the mineralogy, increased with increasing flatness ratio. The MR values of the dense-graded aggregates had an observed peak value at a flatness ratio of 0.6, whereas the final permanent strain during PD testing increased with increasing flatne...