Analisi archeometriche di marmi dell'Etruria padana: i casi di Marzabotto e Spina

Lorenzo Lazzarini, Fede Berti,

Abstract

Little archaeometric investigation has so far been carried out on the importation and use of marble by the Etruscans, either in Etruria itself or in its central and eastern settlements. In the past some laboratory analyses were performed on artefacts excavated in the latter, but the unsatisfactory results obtained explain why the previously analyzed pieces have now been re-examined together with a number of artefacts that had hitherto not been investigated: more reliable analytical methods basing on updated reference databases have been used. The marble pieces considered are a small head of a votive kouros from Marzabotto (province of Bologna) dating to the end of the VI century B.C., plus a pair of cinerary urns, three funerary markers (two of which were obtained from anchors), a disc and three pyxides, all discovered in the necropolis of Spina (province of Ferrara) and dating to the V century B.C. The very small samples taken from the pyxides were subjected to a detailed stereomicroscopic examination, to X-Ray diffraction and isotopic analysis by mass-spectrometry, while the larger ones removed from the rest of items were also examined minero-petrographically on thin section under a polarizing microscope. The results obtained indicate that all the items are made of Parian marbles: the kouros head, the funerary urns and markers originate from the open-pit quarries of Lakkoi, while the pyxides, like a similar piece from Metapontum, were obtained from the famous lychnites marble quarried at Stephani, thus probably indicating the presence of a specialized atelier active on the Island of Paros in the V century B.C.