A multi-method approach combining polarized-light microscopy, cathodoluminescence, X-ray powder diffraction, and stable C and O isotope analysis was applied to identify the marble provenance. These artefacts found on display at the Spanish National Museum of Roman Art comprise a representative record of archaeological pieces from different decorative programmes dated from the end of the 1 st century BC to the end of the 2 nd century AD. This contribution reports the results of the archaeometric study of 51 marble sculptures and decorative elements from the capital of Roman Lusitania, Augusta Emerita (Mérida, Spain). Microscopic study of thin sections together with carbon and oxygen stable isotope ratios indicate that more than one type of white marbles was used: Pentelikon, Lunense, and Thasian. The determination of the source origin of the white marbles used for the sculptures has been established by mineralogical-petrographic and geochemical analyses. In this paper, we report the results of the provenance identification of the white marbles used for the sculptures found in the archaeological site of Forum Sempronii and now displayed at the local archaeological museum. During ancient and more recent archaeological excavations, many fragments of coloured stones and marbles, and some white marble sculptures have been unearthed. The ancient colony of Forum Sempronii, which is cited by Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy, was found in the second century BC, probably on the site of an earlier community and its activity continued until the end of the fifth century AD. 7ĪBSTRACT The Roman municipium of Forum Sempronii (Fossombrone, Marche) was located along the ‘Via Consolare Flaminia’, in the stretch of road where it ran along the final sector of the valley of the River Metauro (Mataurus). The database and the discriminating criteria presented in this study have been tentatively applied to some ancient sculptures from the National Museum of Roman Art in Merida (Spain). Each area is generally represented by several cathodomicrofacies, but quantitative CL analysis is also helpful in distinguishing those quarries for which the data provided by other techniques are not suciently diagnostic. Maximum grain size, texture and isotopic composition can be used to identify the dierent quarries. Three techniques (petrography, cathodoluminescence and stable C and O isotopes) have been used to characterize white marbles from the ancient quarries of the Iberian Peninsula. However, determining the provenance of white marbles is a dicult task due to their similarity in physical and chemical parameters.
Many scienti®c techniques have been used to create an extensive data base of``®nger-prints'' characterizing white marbles from the major classical quarries. Pure white marble has been considered a valuable ornamental and architectural material since ancient times.
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