Geochemical and petrographic identification of stone quarries used for the construction of the Anahita Temple of Kangavar (West Iran)

Abstract

The archaeological site of the Anahita Temple in Kangavar is one of the best-known stone monuments in western Iran and dates back to the Persian Empire period of Iranian history (about 550 BC to 650 AD). The Temple was constructed on a semi-artificial hill out of large stone blocks, many of which are cubic in shape, and short thick columns. In the Kangavar area (basin) there are various sites in which there is evidence of stone extraction. The aim of this paper is to characterize the stones used in the Anahita Temple of Kangavar and their correlations with the quarrying activities observed in the Kangavar regions. In fact, we tried to find out which of these quarries may have been the source of the stone blocks used in the construction of the Anahita Temple. To this end the stones used in the Temple have been characterized by conducting a multi-analytical study involving chemical, mineralogical and textural analyses including XRF, XRD and thin section petrography. The results show that although all the quarries could have provided the stone used in the construction of the Temple, the largest, most probable source was the Chel Maran quarry. It is due to the more similarity of stones used in the Anahita Temple and the samples from this quarry from geochemical point of view as well as the archaeological evidences present in this quarry. The results are also useful for conservators to select appropriate materials for reconstruction of the decayed parts of the Anahita Temple.