Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep Archaeometric approach to identifying the provenance of white marbles from the shipwreck of Cala Cicala (Crotone, Calabria, Italy) Fabrizio Antonelli a , Andrea Bloise b , Fabio Bruno c , Raffaella De Luca b , Ignazio Allegretta d , Salvatore Medaglia c , Armando Taliano Grasso e , Roberto Terzano d , Domenico Miriello b, ⁎ a Università Iuav di Venezia, Laboratorio di Analisi dei Materiali Antichi, Venezia, Italy b Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Biologia, Ecologia e Scienze della Terra, Rende, Italy c Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica Energetica e Gestionale, Rende, Italy d Università di Bari, Dipartimento di Scienze del Suolo, della Pianta e degli Alimenti. Bari, Italy e Università della Calabria, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Antichità Calabresi, Rende, Italy ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Archaeometric analysis Marble cargo Shipwreck Calabria Thasian marble ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of an archaeometric study performed on white marbles from the shipwreck of Cala Cicala (Crotone, Calabria, Italy). The stone materials, especially the white marbles, are an excellent tool for reconstructing the trade routes of the past and studying the relationships between ancient populations. The purposes of this study were to establish the provenance of the white marbles of the shipwreck of Cala Cicala (Crotone, Calabria, Southern Italy) and to use analysis of their composition to acquire more knowledge about trade routes in the Roman imperial age. The 35 samples of white marble were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRPD), optical microscopy (OM), and isotopic analysis (δ 13 C and δ 18 O). All of the archaeometric data collected indicate that the marble blocks in the cargos are from the Greek island of Thasos, in the northern Aegean Sea. 1. Introduction and historical background The shipwreck of Cala Cicala is located approximately 300 m from the Italian coastline, in a stretch of the Ionian Sea along the southern flank of the promontory of Capo Colonna (Crotone), in the Calabria region of southern Italy (Fig. 1). Remnants of the ancient shipwreck cover an area of approximately 23.5 × 20.5 m, at a depth of 4.8 to 6.5 m. The ship's cargo includes 35 blocks of white marbles and one block of quartzite. The shipwreck, first reported in the late fifties of the twentieth century, was investigated by the Archaeological Superintendence of Calabria in 1983, with the help of the “Cooperativa Aquarius” of Milan (northern Italy), which carried out the first mapping of the site (Medaglia, 2010). Subsequently, in June 2017, the archaeological evi- dence, which had remained substantially unpublished, was the subject of an interdisciplinary underwater research campaign coordinated by the archaeologist Salvatore Medaglia, with the participation of re- searchers and scholars from three different departments of the Uni- versity of Calabria. The 1983 and 2017 research campaigns did not identify any element related to the hull of the “navis lapidaria”. On the other hand, the rocky seabed and shallow depth would hardly have allowed the conservation of any wooden elements. There have been no archaeological finds attributable to the “instrumentum navis” or to mobile materials pertinent to the crew (such as ceramics). While the causes of the shipwreck are not known, the most plausible hypothesis is that the ship crashed against the rocky side of the promontory, perhaps because of adverse weather and sea conditions. Considering the current location of the lithic finds, it is possible to draw some preliminary conclusions regarding the stowage of the blocks. The position of the marbles seems to reflect the position of the blocks during loading. In particular, it appears that the pillar-shaped elements, precisely because they were longer, occupied the outermost area of the hold, corre- sponding to the sides, surrounding the rest of the load on both sides, mostly composed of blocks. Therefore, it is reasonable to suppose that the ship, once sunk, was positioned with the longitudinal axis oriented in a northeast/southwest direction. Based on the formal and dimen- sional features of the stone finds, the type of marble from which the artefacts were obtained, and comparisons with similar stone loads, the cargo of Cala Cicala can reasonably be attributed to the Roman imperial age. This dating can be attributed on the basis of the wreck of Torre Sgarrata, the only other known shipwreck in which the transport of the Thasian marble, in the form of blocks, is attested. It is commonly dated between the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd century CE; moreover, within this wreck, the blocks show the same processing https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102204 Received 8 October 2019; Received in revised form 11 December 2019; Accepted 9 January 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Biologia, Ecologia e Scienze della Terra, Via P. Bucci, 87036 Rende, CS, Italy. E-mail address: miriello@unical.it (D. Miriello). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 30 (2020) 102204 2352-409X/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T