The search for the prehistoric marble sources in the Cyclades

Dimitris Tambakopoulos & Yannis Maniatis in Anna Gutiérrez Garcia-M., Pilar Lapuente Mercadal & Isabel Rodà de Llanza (eds) 2012. Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone. Proceedings of the IX Association for the Study of Marblesand Other Stones in Antiquity (ASMOSIA) Conference (Tarragona 2009). [Documenta 23], Tarragona: Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica, 287-299.

Περίληψη (στα Αγγλικά)

The use of marble in prehistory and in particular in the Early Bronze Age is clearly evident in the Greek Cycladic islands where the famous Cycladic figurines appeared and spread all over the Aegean. However, the absence of quarrying traces in that period and the abundance of marble outcrops in most of the Cycladic islands makes the creation of reference databases very difficult and hence the determination of provenance of prehistoric artefacts quite demanding. To approach this problem we surveyed systematically the marble outcrops in the Cyclades in several campaigns. A large number of samples was collected from Naxos, Keros, Ios, Syros, Nikouria, Schinoussa and Iraklia and analysed using MGS, EPR and IRMS. These updated and completed the database of the Cyclades that had been created by previous surveys over the past 20 years. The new database is presented here and some earlier provenance results of prehistoric objects are being reconsidered.

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