Protocol for lapis lazuli provenance determination: evidence for an Afghan origin of the stones used for ancient carved
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Protocol for lapis lazuli provenance determination: evidence for an Afghan origin of the stones used for ancient carved artefacts kept at the Egyptian Museum of Florence (Italy) Alessandro Lo Giudice 1,2 & Debora Angelici 2,3 & Alessandro Re 1,2 & Gianluca Gariani 1 & Alessandro Borghi 3 & Silvia Calusi 4,5 & Lorenzo Giuntini 4,5 & Mirko Massi 4,5 & Lisa Castelli 5 & Francesco Taccetti 5 & Thomas Calligaro 6,7 & Claire Pacheco 6,7 & Quentin Lemasson 6,7 & Laurent Pichon 6,7 & Brice Moignard 6,7 & Giovanni Pratesi 8 & Maria Cristina Guidotti 9
Received: 30 May 2016 / Accepted: 27 October 2016 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016
Abstract Despite that the Badakhshan Province (Afghanistan) remains the most plausible hypothesis for the lapis lazuli used in antiquity, alternatives proposed in literature are worth to study to confirm or disprove their historical reliability. In this work with, a protocol for determining the provenance of lapis lazuli rocks used for carved artefacts is described. Markers for the univocal attribution of the raw material to a source were identified analysing 45 rocks of known provenance (among which 15 georeferenced) from 4 quarry districts. To the best of our knowledge, this reference database is the widest in provenance studies on lapis lazuli. All the markers are recognisable by means of Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) techniques, in particular micro-proton-induced x-ray emission (PIXE) and microionoluminescence (IL). These techniques are non-invasive and applicable in air, allowing to analyse artworks and rocks
of practically any shape and dimension without sample preparation. The protocol was applied to determine the provenance of raw material used for carved lapis lazuli artefacts kept at the Egyptian Museum of Florence, the second most important Egyptian museum in Italy, second only to the museum of Turin. The collection in Florence has a great historical value and includes several lapis lazuli pendants, scarabs, small statuettes and amulets ascribable mainly to the first millennium BC. Following the protocol, 11 of these artefacts were analysed by means of IBA techniques. Results ascribe the raw material to the Afghan quarry district.
Keywords Lapis lazuli . Provenance . Ancient Egypt . Archaeometry . μ-PIXE . Ionoluminescence
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12520-016-0430-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Alessandro Lo Giudice [email protected]
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INFN Sezione di Firenze, Via Sansone 1, 50019, Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy
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Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France, Palais du Louvre, Paris, France
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FR3506 New AGLAE CNRS/Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Paris, France
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Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Torino, Via Giuria 1, 10125 Torino, Italy
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INFN Sezione di Torino, Via Giuria 1, 10125 Torino, Italy
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Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125 Torino, Italy
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