Fingerprinting White Marbles
QUARRIES AND CITIES OF ROMAN THRACE, 1ST-3RD CENTURY AD
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The Project

The project is positioned within a field of tension between prestige objects, works of art, and building materials, yet it also incorporates a new geographical space apart from the west-east division of the Mediterranean world. A large number of methods are being performed in this project for the investigation of the provenance studies. It connects the antiquity-directed disciplines of archaeology and Roman economic history with geology and the application-based analysis procedures of petrography and geochemistry.
  • Short Description
  • Team
    • Photo: The artefact FWM0061, the Thracian horseman vom Philippopolis (NAIM Museum, Sofia) (© ÖAW-ÖAI/V. Anevlavi)
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The Methods

A combination of the following analytical procedures is applied:
petrography, analysis of the stable isotopes of C and O, trace element chemistry, and analysis of micro-inclusions. For the analysis of stable isotopes of O and C, an amount of sample in the range of a few mg is required. However, extremely small samples in the order of about 1 mg taken from surfaces imply the risk of wrong results because of appreciable modification of the isotope composition. Therefore, a well-considered sampling is a prerequisite. Additional variables are obtained by trace element chemistry. In contrast to the outsized amount of stable isotope data, the information on other chemical parameters of ancient white marbles is rather moderate. In this context, it is important to mention that those elements that are incorporated into the carbonate lattice (Mg, Fe, Mn, Sr, and Zn) exhibit a fairly homogeneous and consistent distribution and can advantageously be used to discriminate between different types of white marbles. The analysis of micro-inclusions, based on the “crush and leach” analysis of extractable total dissolved solids - TDS - from marbles and carbonate rocks, are used. These solutes occur basically in very small fluid-filled cavities, the so-called fluid inclusions, which can be found in all marbles and are usually relatively homogeneous in composition. Petrography is applied systematically; if the size of the sample is sufficient, thin sections for microscopic investigations are prepared.
    Photo: The Asenovgrad quarries near the Roman Philippopolis (Lovcation: Ravdin 1) (© ÖAW-ÖAI/V. Anevlavi)
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The Data

The archaeological and archaeometric data acquired during the project, as well as all published (white) marble numerical data, are included in the database. These samples are referred to as archaeological and quarry samples. The metadata for each individual sample is first recorded. A description for each individual sample is provided as well as the material description and quarry description. Geographic data are available, including archaeological sites, quarries, and laboratories. The image data (space, objects, and thin sections) are linked to the corresponding sample. If there are publications on individual sites and objects, these are included in a bibliographic collection, also linked to the corresponding sample.