The moulds from Sardinia known as "steatite moulds": studies on their lithology and provenance

Small chips from some of the so-called "Steatite Moulds", found in different parts of Sardinia, have been analyzed in several ways: after a check of the macroscopic aspect of the material, diffractometric analyses and microscopic studies on thin sections were performed. The observations were compared with those from materials collected in the old talc-chlorite mines of Barbagia, Central Sardinia. The two sets look to form two families of material, namely clinochlore-quartz-(albite), and talc-clinochlore. This indicates that the materials used to produce the "Steatite Moulds" may well come from the numerous outcrops of compact talc (i.e. steatite) and chlorite (whose main species is clinochlore), easily found by the ancient Sardinians.