Uploaded on 2017-01-26 by Lorenzo Martelli

By studying this module, it came to my mind that I had a very nice and interesting example of ancient globalization. Allow me to use this example to show how globalization was always interacting with our societies and the urban set up. This photo shows one of the most famous world's monument the Dome of Florence and its "Batistero". A very recent study was performed on the marbles of the "Batistero". The petrographic and mineralogical analysis was performed and compared with the quarried of Carrara and others in the vicinity. The petrographic analysis shown (under the major concern of the experts) that the marbles of the 1st and 2 nd level (identified with a pink line) were NOT from Carrara as everyone was expecting but.... from Greek quarries. On the other hand (in green) the green stone comes from a rock (diorite) from a quarry close to Florence. The origin of the greek marble is from the Pentelico quarry and from another old quarry that I do not recall the name which were quarried at the time of the roman empire. But the interesting part come also now. How greek marbles slabs came to pave the batistero building which construction starts in 1000 A.D approx.? when in Europe travelling was dangerous. These marble slabs are most probably coming from the roman temples which were built in Fiesole during the roman empire. So at that time it was possible to build a social/religious building by importing construction material from elsewhere, 1000 of kms distance !!! I resumed briefly the story of the marble slabs from the Bastitero but to me this is a very nice example of globalization and marriage between foreign and autochthone construction materials.