scholarly journals A strontium isoscape of Italy for provenance studies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Lugli ◽  
Anna Cipriani ◽  
Luigi Bruno ◽  
Francesco Ronchetti ◽  
Caludio Cavazzuti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Kriging Model ◽  
Sr Isotope ◽  
Heterogeneous Distribution ◽  
Provenance Studies ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Predictor Model ◽  
End Members ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Geological Units

We present a novel database of environmental and geological 87Sr/86Sr values (n = 1920) from Italy, using literature data and newly analysed samples, for provenance purposes. We collected both bioavailable and non-bioavailable (i.e. rocks and bulk soils) data to attain a broader view of the Sr isotope variability of the Italian peninsula. These data were used to build isotope variability maps, namely isoscapes, through Kriging interpolations. We employed two different Kriging models, namely Ordinary Kriging and Universal Kriging, with a geolithological map of Italy categorized in isotope classes as external predictor. Model performances were evaluated through a 10-fold cross validation, yielding accurate 87Sr/86Sr predictions with root mean squared errors (RMSE) ranging between 0.0020 and 0.0024, dependent on the Kriging model and the sample class. Overall, the produced maps highlight a heterogeneous distribution of the 87Sr/86Sr across Italy, with the highest radiogenic values (>0.71) mainly localized in three areas, namely the Alps (Northern Italy), the Tuscany/Latium (Central Italy) and Calabria/Sicily (Southern Italy) magmatic/metamorphic terrains. The rest of the peninsula is characterized by values ranging between 0.707 and 0.710, mostly linked to sedimentary geological units of mixed nature. Finally, we took advantage of the case study of Fratta Polesine, to underscore the importance of choosing appropriate samples when building the local isoscape and of exploring different end-members when interpreting the local Sr isotope variability in mobility and provenance studies. Our user-friendly maps and database are freely accessible through the Geonode platform and will be updated over time to offer a state-of-the-art reference in mobility and provenance studies across the Italian landscape.

Anorthite megacrysts from island arc basalts

1995 ◽  
Vol 59 (394) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitsuyoshi Kimata ◽  
Norimasa Nishida ◽  
Masahiro Shimizu ◽  
Shizuo Saito ◽  
Tomoaki Matsui ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Planetary Nebula ◽  
Isotope Ratio ◽  
Island Arc ◽  
Japanese Island ◽  
Sr Isotope ◽  
Native Copper ◽  
Chemical Zoning ◽  
Basaltic Magmas ◽  
End Members ◽  
Lateral Variations

AbstractAnorthite megacrysts are common in basalts from the Japanese Island Arc, and signally rare in other global fields. These anorthites are 1 to 3 cm in size and often contain several corroded Mg-olivine inclusions. The megacrysts generally range from An94Ab4Ot2 to An89Ab6Ot5 (Ot: other minor end-members, including CaFeSi3O8, CaMgSi3O8, AlAl3SiO8, □Si4O8) and show no chemical zoning. They often show parting. Redclouded megacrysts contain microcrystals of native copper with a distribution reminiscent of the shape of a planetary nebula. Hydrocarbons are also present, both in the anorthite megacrysts and in the olivines included within them. Implications of lateral variations in the Fe/Mg ratio of the included olivines, in Sr-content and in Sr-isotope ratio of the anorthite megacrysts with respect to the Japanese island arc, relate to mixing of crustal components and subducted slab-sediments into the basaltic magmas.

Weathering of biotite to vermiculite in Quaternary lahars from Monti Ernici, Central Italy

Clay Minerals ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Pozzuoli ◽  
E. Vila ◽  
E. Franco ◽  
A. Ruiz-Amil ◽  
C. De La Calle
Keyword(s):  
Fourier Transform ◽  
Fourier Series ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Small Samples ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
Transform Methods ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Type Phase ◽  
Fourier Transform Methods ◽  
End Members

AbstractThe weathering of biotite in Quaternary lahars from Monti Ernici (Central Italy) via interstratification stages has been studied by X-ray diffraction of both the interstratified minerals and the initial (biotite) and final (vermiculite) end-members. The structure of the biotite and vermiculite is described by means of monodimensional Fourier series. The interstratified phases have been studied using the INTER program which permits an analysis of two interstratified components by Fourier transform methods. It is shown that in the alteration range for biotite to vermiculite even small samples have different spatial concentrations of biotite, vermiculite and an intermediate biotite-vermiculite-type phase. Hydrobiotite and a rare biotite-hydrobiotite with a tendency to regularity have also been documented. Chemically, the process involves considerable oxidation of Fe2+ and the removal of most of the elements, corresponding to a 34% loss in matter. The sequence of the element losses is: K+ > Fe2+ > F− > Mn2+ > Si4+ > Mg2+ > Al3+ > Ti4+. There are also some gains in the order: H+ > Ca2+ > Fe3+ > Na+.

The Etruscans

Antiquity ◽  
1927 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Randall MacIver
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
King Arthur ◽  
Almost Everywhere ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The City ◽  
As If

It is surprising how little classical authors of the time of Augustus choose to tell us about the Etruscans. For Livy, Vergil and their contemporaries it might almost seem as if the Etruscans had already become a dim legendary background to history, hardly less unreal than King Arthur is to us. If they ever knew the facts they have taken great pains to conceal how much of their state religion and political organization was due to Etruscan rulers, and how completely the city of Rome itself was based upon Etruscan foundations. This is to some extent the result of a deliberate conspiracy. It was the set policy of the Augustan writers to suppress everything that did not obviously tend to the enhancement of Roman prestige; it was their policy to distort facts, to invent legends and to carry into their literature the same single-minded fanaticism that had made the success of their nation in politics and war. We must not look therefore to the Latin writers for any scientific account of the extraordinary people that preceded the Romans almost everywhere in North and Central Italy, and, but for some strange inherent weakness, would have ruled the whole peninsula in their stead. Merely as a prelude to his story of the rise of Rome, Livy tells us that Etruria had ‘filled with the renown of her name the whole length of Italy from the Alps to the Sicilian strait.’

The Making of a Legend

2019 ◽  
pp. 36-48
Author(s):  
Francesca Trivellato
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Financial Instruments ◽  
Marine Insurance ◽  
Rhetorical Strategy ◽  
Public Square ◽  
Insurance Policies ◽  
Financial Credit ◽  
The Alps

This chapter discusses Étienne Cleirac's commentary on the first article of the Guidon de la mer (The Standard of the Sea). In brief, he says that the Jews expelled from France invented marine insurance policies and bills of exchange in order to salvage their assets when fleeing to “Lombardy,” that is, to northern and central Italy. From there, Italian refugees exported the newly invented financial instruments north of the Alps, where bankers and moneylenders were called “Lombards,” a name eventually given to a public square in Amsterdam. Cleirac's merging of these spaces has the effect of tracing a direct line between fourteenth-century Lombards and seventeenth-century Amsterdam and makes pawnbroking appear contiguous with the most sophisticated forms of financial credit developed during the sixteenth century. This chronological compression is crucial to Cleirac's rhetorical strategy of making medieval Jewish moneylenders, the object of scorn and prejudice, interchangeable with the international merchant-bankers of the seventeenth century.

An integrated approach to the study of local production and exchange in the lower Pontine plain

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 349-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gijs Tol ◽  
Barbara Borgers
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Ceramic Production ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Roman Economy ◽  
Kiln Site ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
To Come ◽  
Geological Units

Prevailing models of the Roman economy tend to focus on long-distance exchange and are biased towards urban centres; thereby, much emphasis is placed on imported pottery, seen as an indicator for a strongly globalized and economically integrated market. Yet Roman economic networks must have been much more complex, with most communities strongly embedded in their local environment and depending chiefly on short- and medium-distance trade for their everyday goods. The evidence for such relationships has to come from a comprehensive investigation of local and regional systems of ceramic production and exchange. While this topic has received attention especially in areas with extensive evidence for kiln sites or in areas made up of relatively distinct geological units, the available evidence for central Italy, being still rather incomplete and of varied quality, displays a number of biases. For example, the evidence for ceramic production is often provided by the detailed investigation of just one kiln site, and such cases are seldom considered within their broader spatial, social and economic contexts in a way that would allow inferences to be drawn on the mechanisms of production and distribution on a local scale.

scholarly journals Hints on the Late Miocene Evolution of the Tonale-Adamello-Brenta Region (Alps, Italy) Based on Allochtonous Sediments From Raponzolo Cave

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Sauro ◽  
Maria Giuditta Fellin ◽  
Andrea Columbu ◽  
Philipp Häuselmann ◽  
Andrea Borsato ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Miocene ◽  
Fine Sand ◽  
Cave Sediments ◽  
Minimum Age ◽  
Cold Events ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Geological Units ◽  
Two Populations ◽  
Quartz Grains

Raponzolo is a paleo-phreatic cave explored in 2011 in the Brenta Dolomites (Trentino, Italy), at the remarkable altitude of 2,560 m a.s.l. Differently to all other caves of the area, it hosts well-cemented fine to medium sands of granitic-metamorphic composition. The composition suggests a sediment source from the Adamello and Tonale Unit, separated from the Brenta by one of the most important tectonic lineaments of the Alps (Giudicarie Line). The fine-sand sediment was sampled to determine burial time and thus a minimum age of the cave. Cosmogenic isotopes (26Al and 10Be) in quartz grains allowed to estimate a minimum burial age of 5.25 Ma based on the mean sediment transport time at the surface and infer original altitude of the catchment area. Detrital apatite fission-track (AFT) and U-Pb dating on zircons provide information on the source, both from a regional and altitude (exhumation) perspective. Two populations of detrital AFT ages center at 17 (−2.3 + 2.6) Ma and 23 (−3.3 + 3.9) Ma, whereas the main detrital zircon U-Pb age populations are younger than 40 Ma. These correspond to intrusive and metamorphic sources nowadays outcropping exclusively above 2,200–2,300 m a.s.l. in Northern Adamello and Tonale. The results point to a late Miocene erosion and infilling of the cave by allochtonous sediments, with important implications on the timing of cave speleogenesis, as well as the paleogeographical connection, tectonic evolution and uplift of different structural units of the Alps. The roundness and the well sorted size of the quartz grains suggest a fluvial or aeolian origin, possibly recycled by glacial activity related to cold events reported in high latitude areas of the world at 5.75 and 5.51 Ma. These glacial phases have never been documented before in the Alps. This information confirms that the valleys dividing these geological units were not yet deeply entrenched during the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.6–5.5 Ma), allowing an efficient transport of sediments across major tectonic lineaments of the Alps. This study shows the potential of cave sediments to provide information not only on the age of speleogenesis but also on the paleogeography of a wide area of the Alps during the late Miocene.

scholarly journals Studying habitats and dynamical interaction in Neolithic Europe through the material culture of pile dwellings

2014 ◽  
pp. 39-44
Author(s):  
J. Verdonkschot
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
Dynamical Interaction ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Dynamic Relations ◽  
Neolithic Europe

The Early Neolithic in Europe is one of the most dynamic and significant periods of prehistory. However, there are still many questions waiting to be answered. Pile dwellings can shed a light on this case as these sites and their material have been preserved exceptionally well due to the humid conditions of their location. Besides from this global aim they also offer the possibility of comparing several settlements extensively, including data such as architecture, tools and diet as well as the more traditional ceramic remains. This article proposes a line of investigation in which several Case Studies from different areas (the Alps, Northern Spain and Central Italy) are studied. These Case Studies consist of a specific area, including a lakeside settlement that forms the basis, and nearby contemporaneous sites. The areas are assessed based on the found archaeological record and in terms of their social organization and connections. Secondly, the dynamic relations between said areas are addressed in order to study connectivity and contact in Early Neolithic Europe. Above all this study promotes a different way of investigating, abandoning the single-site perspective, no longer looking exclusively for differences but adopting a slightly different vision and linking different sites and places.

scholarly journals A New Approach for Provenance Studies of Archaeological Finds: Inferences from Trace Elements in Carbonate Minerals of Alpine White Marbles by a Bench-to-Top μ-XRF Spectrometer

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria Vaggelli ◽  
Margherita Serra ◽  
Roberto Cossio ◽  
Alessandro Borghi
Keyword(s):  
Principal Component ◽  
Hierarchical Cluster ◽  
Western Alps ◽  
Metamorphic Rocks ◽  
Carbonate Minerals ◽  
Data Set ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Provenance Studies ◽  
Individual Observation ◽  
Geological Units

The metamorphic rocks outcropping in the Western Alps are characterised by a great variety of white marbles which have been used since the antiquity. This variety mostly includes nine historical Piedmont white marbles (Ornavasso, Candoglia, Crevola, Pont Canavese, Foresto, Chianocco, Prali, Brossasco, and Garessio marbles) coming from well-known quarry sites and belonging to different metamorphic geological units of the Western Alps. The petrographical, minerochemical, and C–O isotopic data of these white marbles have been integrated with CaO and trace element (Fe, Mn, and Sr) concentration determined on single crystals of carbonate minerals (i.e., calcite and/or dolomite) by means of a bench-to-top µ-XRF spectrometer. Principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were performed on a data set of 178 observations containing CaO, Fe, Mn, and Sr concentration as well as the maximum grain size (MGS), δ18O and δ13C. The use of only five selected variables (CaO, Fe, Mn, Sr, and δ18O) has provided the correct allocation of each individual observation to its relevant class. Therefore, this approach based mostly on a noninvasive µ-XRF determination will be useful to define the provenance of unknown marbles of alpine origin used in antiquity for cultural heritage.

The Emergence of Metallurgy in the Central Mediterranean Region: A New Model

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Dolfini
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Extractive Metallurgy ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Copper Age ◽  
Metal Working ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
East Central ◽  
The Alps

This study seeks to discuss the origins and early spread of metal technology in the central Mediterranean region. Neolithic and Copper Age evidence of metal-working and metal-using is first reviewed. It is claimed in particular that copper tools were first used, and probably also made, south of the Alps in the late Neolithic, and that complex polymetallic metallurgy developed in the early Copper Age after a short-lived intensification phase in the final Neolithic. In the second section, current models explaining the emergence of metallurgy in this region are then discussed, and a new proposal is put forward. This claims that metal technology, coming from eastern Europe, was imported into the whole of the east-central alpine region in the third quarter of the fifth millennium BC. Thence, it would have swiftly spread throughout northern Italy, central Italy, and Sardinia, and would have reached Corsica, southern Italy, and Sicily somewhat later. Finally, it is argued that the Copper Age metalworking communities dwelling in the western part of the central Mediterranean, and especially those located in west-central Italy, would have played a key role in transmitting knowledge of extractive metallurgy further west in the late fourth millennium BC.

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