Ανάπτυξη συνδυαστικής μεθοδολογίας με επεμβατικές και μη-επεμβατικές μεθόδους για τη διερεύνηση της προέλευσης του μαρμάρου στην αρχαιότητα ; Development of a combined methodology using invasive and non-invasive techniques for the investigation of marble provenance in antiquity

Marble has being used widely, from prehistoric Cyclades up to nowadays, to express artistic, religious and cultural needs, as well as to impress history and reflect the general social and economic status of each period and civilization. Determination of marble provenance and mapping of marble transportation is revealing a lot of important information about the ancient world and attracts increasingly more archaeologist, art historians, architects, conservators and others in the study of marble provenance, which demands the continuous development of archaeometric science.The research conducted for this Ph.D. project was based on the up to date, most advanced and efficient methods and techniques used in marble provenance determination and divided in 3 basic sections: a) optimization of methodologies used in marble provenance by combining non-distractive (optical examination and MGS measurements) and distractive techniques (EPR spectroscopy and stable isotope analysis - IRMS), b) expansion of the databases with new marble areas and extension of the time period that can cover, and c) application of the new methodology and database in real archaeological problems, contributing to the understanding and deciphering the Greek and world history.The database of the Laboratory of Archaeometry consists of the most important ancient marble quarries of east Mediterranean Sea, opened and operated from archaic period onwards. However, for prehistory, when there is no proven systematic quarrying activity, only a few possible marble outcrops have been studied in the past; in particular for prehistoric Cyclades, only some marble outcrops from the SE Naxos, some from Keros and the archaic and classic quarries at Paros and Naxos. In order to expand the database for the prehistoric Cyclades, a thorough field work, sampling of marble outcrops, took place on the islands of Naxos, Ios, Syros, Keros, Nikouria, Schoinousa and Irakleia and the collected samples were analysed by the aforementioned techniques. Furthermore the ancient roman ...