Resumen de Provenance investigation of marble sculptures from Butrint, Albania

Vassiliki Gaggadis-Robin, I. Pojani, K. Polikreti, Y. Maniatis

• Bouthroton or Buthrotum or Butrint is an ancient city in south Albania, situated 14 km from the modern city of Saranta, and a few km from the Greed border. This study was undertaken in the '90s during the Greek-Albanian archaeological mission of Butrint and aimed in determining the provenance of a series of marble sculptures from this site. Two scientific techniques were used for the provenance investigation of the marble: Optical Microscopy (OM) and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy (EPR). All samples were first examined under the stereoscopic microscope, their texture evaluated and the maximum Grain Size (MGS) of the marble crystals was measured. After the microscopic examination and measurement, small pieces of the samples were gently ground in an agate mortar and 220 mg of coarse powder was used for the analysis with EPR spectroscopy. The vast majority, most probably all, of the Butrint marbles analysed come from Greece, a fact that indicates a close cultural association of the site with Greece.