Abstract:

This paper presents the first results of an ongoing provenance study of some objects aiming to determine which marbles were employed in an area as far apart from the Mediterranean Sea as Roman Gallaecia (in the NW of Spain) from an interdisciplinary perspective. These first results help us to understand the trade routes and other mechanisms of the economy and society that produced or enjoyed these objects. A multimethod analysis (POM, CL and IRMS for C-O isotopic determination) has been applied and compared to our reference collection including well-known Classical as well as most of the Iberian marbles. The results so far show a picture much more complex than anticipated, where the local marble from the area of O Incio (in the south of Lugo province) and other local varieties from the NW region were also exploited and used by the Romans.