Abstract Ravenna represented an important administrative, commercial and cultural centre in the fifth and sixth centuries. The present study explored the commercial mechanisms of Ravenna in Late Antiquity from the point of view of the marble trade, as well as the trade in other architectural elements. A portion of the research is based on the macroscopic and quantitative study of stone materials (around 1000 fragments) from the Late Antique and medieval complex of San Severo in Classe (Ravenna, Italy). The results indicated that the predominant commercial relationships of Ravenna with respect to stone artefacts (marbles, limestones, porphyry, breccia, granites) were orientated mainly towards the regions of Asia Minor, with some trade also occurring in minor quantities with North Africa, Greece, Italy, and France. Three representative marble samples were analysed to make determinations of their provenance. The methods used were based upon a combination of petrographic image analysis, polarizing and cathodoluminescence microscopy of thin sections, and stable isotope geochemistry of carbonates. The Proconnesos and, eventually, other Turkish provenance of the selected samples is considered.

Abstract The Netherlands, with only scarce occurrences of outcropping or shallow buried natural stone, has over centuries imported huge quantities of Early Cretaceous Bentheim Sandstone and Obernkirchen Sandstone from Germany. The present paper provides an overview of their distribution and properties relevant to their use as building stone, and their mutual differences and comparative weathering. Evidence in Dutch architecture for the onset of quarrying of the Bentheim Sandstone is presented, and an overview is given of the use of Bentheim Sandstone and Obernkirchen Sandstone in the Netherlands and Belgium.