Micro-XRF Trace Element Quantification in Calcite: a Contribution to White Marble Provenance Determination M. Serra,* A. Borghi,* R. Cabella,** L.M. Gallo,*** and G. Vaggelli,**** * Dipartimento di Scienze Mineralogiche e Petrologiche, Facoltà di Scienze Matematiche Fisiche e Naturali, Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125, Torino (TO), Italia ** Dipartimento per lo Studio del Territorio e delle sue Risorse, Facoltà di Scienze Matematiche Fisiche e Naturali, Università degli Studi di Genova, Corso Europa 26, 16132 Genova (GE), Italia *** Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali di Torino, Sezione di Mineralogia, Petrografia e Geologia, Via Giolitti 36, 10123 Torino (TO), Italia **** CNR, Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Sezione di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125, Torino (TO), Italia In the last few decades marble provenance identification has represented a focal concern for archaeometric researches, leading to the creation of extensive databases based on the combined results of different geological and physico-chemical methods [e.g. 1, 2]. Even though isotope geochemistry seemed to give the most discriminant results [e.g. 3], the progressive increasing of the database and the consequent overlapping of the characteristic fields pointed out the need of developing multi-method strategies [e.g. 4, 5]. The methodological approach presented here combines petrographic and -XRF geochemical data acquired on a set of 320 reference samples from 20 different Mediterranean quarrying sites. Main goal of the research was to evaluate the effective discriminant capability of a new micro-analytical approach based on trace element quantification with μ-XRF Eagle III-XPL (Röntgenanalytik Messtechnik GmbH, Germany) non-destructive instrument. Poly-capillary lenses (30 μm) were used to collimate the microbeam at the sample surface. Single spot analyses on calcite grains gave reproducible results within the same quarry and allowed overcoming the problem of the considerable variations of solution-based ICP-MS analyses. Preliminary results on Alpine and Apuan Italian marbles [6] encouraged the creation of a wider database which took advantage of the availability of different private and academic collections coming from the University of Turin, Genoa and Florence and from the Regional Museum of Natural Science of Turin. The whole set of samples led to the acquisition of original data and allowed quantitative testing the discriminant power of the chosen variables though different samples of the same quarry and in different quarries of the same district. Moreover, it contributed to the scientific valorization of valuable Cultural Heritage. The choice of the varieties to be included in the database was determined by the historic and economic importance of each specific quarrying site over time. They correspond to the well-known Greek marbles from Aegean Islands (Naxos, Paros, Thasos, Tinos) and Attica (Hymettos, Pentelikon), Turkish islands (Proconnesos), marble, while Italian Apuan varieties (Carrara, Saravezza) were analyzed together with Alpine marbles (Lasa, Crevoladossola, Prali, Ornavasso, Brossasco, Chianocco, Pont Canavese). 1808 doi:10.1017/S1431927611009913 Microsc. Microanal. 17 (Suppl 2), 2011 © Microscopy Society of America 2011 https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927611009913 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 54.163.42.124, on 17 Jun 2020 at 23:01:38, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.