Abstract
Although 18O/16O and13C/12C analyses of marbles are increasingly employed to solve archaeological problems of association and provenance, a number of factors can invalidate or limit their application. To be most useful, marble should be isotopically homogeneous to within a few tenths per mil over the dimensions of an artifact and not more than a few per mil from a given quarry site. However, recent compilations of data (1) show that some very large quarries, such as the Aliki Quarry on the Island of Thasos, Greece, are relatively homogeneous isotopically, whereas others that are much smaller (e.g., at Naxos, 2), are very heterogeneous. Still others, such as some quarries from Western Anatolia (e.g., Ephesos) have such large isotopic ranges (3,4) that the method itself is of limited use.
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References
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© 1988 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Wenner, D.B., Havert, S., Clark, A. (1988). Variations in Stable Isotopic Compositions of Marble: An Assessment of Causes. In: Herz, N., Waelkens, M. (eds) Classical Marble: Geochemistry, Technology, Trade. NATO ASI Series, vol 153. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7795-3_35
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7795-3_35
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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