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Tracing Marble Origins (TMO) applies an innovative interdisciplinary approach to study white marble funerary monuments from Roman Macedonia and Thrace, focusing on the Strymon Valley.

By combining archaeological and archaeometrical methods, TMO investigates marble production processes, including quarrying choices and the use of marble as raw material, aiming to understand the emergence of local, regional, and supra-regional stone trade networks by providing a comprehensive overview of marble quarries and their application in diverse contexts. It addresses the scholarship gap by conducting provenance studies of artefacts from this region, an archaeological terra incognita, during the first to third c. AD.

This approach helps answer archaeological and cultural questions about trade, exchange, and craft production at both local and long-distance scales. It combines archaeological discovery with scientific analysis to provide insights into the role of Roman Thrace and Macedonia in ancient marble production, linking artefacts to Roman economic history.

The project employs stylistic and chronological descriptions of each artefact to understand the variation, use, and function of raw materials across centuries. Previously unexplored marble quarries will be identified through geological “fingerprints,” documenting their location, topography, and geochemistry.

This research advances natural sciences in marble provenance studies and contributes to scholarship by building a robust marble archaeological and archaeometric database for future analysis. The archaeological study will be conducted at the National Hellenic Research Foundation (GR), with archaeometric analysis of 90 artefacts at the Austrian Archaeological Institute.

This interdisciplinary study fosters a nuanced understanding of ancient Roman cultural dynamics and creates a valuable dataset for future research. All data will be integrated into an open-access database (F.A.I.R) for broader scientific use.