Resumen de Investigations on the white marbles of architectural elements in Salento (Southern Italy)
This survey represents a contribution for the Roman history of Salento, district of southern Apulia (Italy). The paper shows the results of the archaeological and archaeometric study of 50 architectural elements in white marble, preserved in historical centres of some towns along the last stretch of the Appian Way. They include different typological groups of artefacts, many of them unpublished. All the analyses were carried out to identify the white marbles and to establish their provenance. The samples were subjected to different analytical methods: X-ray diffraction; optical microscopy; stable isotopes of C an O, and neutron activation analysis. Elemental Geochemistry by LIBS spectroscopy was applied as a complementary characterization. Although some marbles were difficult to discriminate, the identification of most os them was possible. The results confirm the use of Carrara but also pint to a variety of classical marble sources in Greece and Turkey, including the employment of Proconnesos. Some greco scritto isotopic signatures are checked against the most reliable databases.