Isotopic testing of marble for figural sculpture at Guelma, Algeria

An inland region in northeastern Algerian has produced a rich harvest of white marble figural sculpture of the Roman Imperial period, most of which is preserved in the city of Guelma. Guelma lies a short distance from the quarries of Mt. Mahouna, and the Seybouse River gives it access to the the quarries of the Mediterranean and coastal Algeria: Mt. Filfila and Cap de Garde. The effort to determine the sources of material used for a selection of twenty sculptures in Guelma is complicated by the great variability of marble from Mt. Filfila. A combination of isotopic analysis, cathodoluminescence, and macroscopic observation, however, makes it possible to establish with confidence that the travertine of Mt. Mahouna was used for relief sculpture and that the marble of Filfila was used for sculptures of various levels of quality. The famous quarries of the Aegean area also provided a substantial part of the sculptures in this sampling.