Provenance and Technology Investigation of Agia Sophia Bricks, Istanbul, Turkey

Bricks from the Agia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, were investigated to better formulate a plan for restoration. According to an ancient text, these bricks are extremely light and were manufactured on the island of Rhodes. Results of neutron activation analysis, grouped by multivariate statistics, show that the brick samples do not correlate with clays thought to be local and used in contemporary churches in Istanbul. The bricks are similar to those used in the Great Basilica of Rhodes. However, the Agia Sophia bricks are lighter (45% porosity) than the bricks from the other churches (35% porosity). The Agia Sophia bricks are made of a noncalcareous, fine paste with quartz temper, fired at low temperature (∼750°C). The exceptional characteristic is their homogeneity and small pore‐size distribution (0.3–0.8 μm). The tensile strength of the dome bricks is unexpectedly high (up to 1.3 MPa), even though the bricks have high porosity.