Stone workshops between petrography and iconography: a preliminary study on Iron Age basalt carvings

The flourishing of sculptural series on orthostats, protomes and statues, which decorated the so-called Syro-Hittite city-state citadels, represents a unique phenomenon in stone production during the pre-classical period (12th-7th centuries BC) in the Syro-Anatolian region. Since the first discoveries of these sculptural cycles, archaeological and art-historical research has primarily focused on problems related to style, dating and production, mostly through an iconographic approach. However, the matter of the workshops (from quarrymen to sculptors) has not been fully explored, nor has the integration of geological aspects (such as the identification of quarries) and the production process. This article presents preliminary results from a broader project that addresses this issue through iconographic and petrographic analysis of basalt samples from sculptures found at Syro-Hittites sites. This study aims to introduce an interdisciplinary approach, seeking to bridge the existing gap between workshops, quarries and the Syro-Hittites political entities that commissioned these monumental artworks.