Delos Archaeological Marbles: A Preliminary Geochemistry‐Based Quarry Provenance Study

A preliminary geochemistry-based study on Delos Island's archaeological marbles reveals that while the island's geological substratum is primarily granite with limited marble deposits, ancient Delians sourced significant quantities of marble from neighboring Cycladic Islands and mainland Greece. Using a non-destructive method—portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis combined with principal component analysis (PCA)—researchers successfully determined the provenance of two artifacts: one confirmed as locally quarried, while the other was identified as imported. This approach demonstrates the potential of pXRF for marble provenance studies, offering a viable alternative when conventional destructive analyses are impractical.

Vettor, T., Sautter, V., Pont, S., Harivel, C., Jolivet, L., Moretti, I., & Moretti, J. C. (2021). Delos Archaeological Marbles: A Preliminary Geochemistry‐Based Quarry Provenance Study. Archaeometry, 63(5), 907–922. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12655