摘要：Lapis lazuli is one of the oldest of all precious stones, with a history going back as far as 7000 years or more in
the past. Lapis lazuli has been highly valued for thousands of years. It was often inserted into jewels, carvings,
amulets and talismans that were believed to have occult powers. Archaeological objects made of lapis lazuli are
widely distributed in the ancient East and some date back as early as the second half of the fourth millennium
B.C. in Central Asia.
Although considerable attention has been previously payed to the mineralogy of lapis lazuli, the new non-
destructive analytical techniques offer wider perspectives to the archaeometry research. Knowledge of the
elemental composition, including major and trace elements may provide clues concerning the provenance and
raw materials. PGAA is one of the new candidates to answer these questions.
In this project we succeeded to collect lapis lazuli samples from the most relevant quarries in the world. Rock
samples from Afghanistan, from Lake Baikal, from Chile and from Ural Mountains have been investigated. With
PGAA we were able to detect the major components, H, Na, Ca, Al, Si, S, Cl, K, and the accessory elements Mg,
Fe, Mn. In addition, the trace elements of B, Sc, Cr, Co, Sm and Gd were identified. According to some
characteristic element ratios the samples from Afghanistan and Baikal are more or less overlapping, while the
samples from Ural and Chile are definitely different from the others. This paper also attempts to determine the
origin of the natural ultramarine, based on provenance analysis on lapis lazuli by PGAA and complementary
FTIR Spectroscopy
