Provenance of some ancient marbles from El Pla de Ses Figueres (Cabrera, Balearic Islands, Spain)

Abstract

El Pla de ses Figueres is an archaeological site located next to the harbour of Cabrera, a small island of 1836 ha situated in the south of the Balearic Islands group. Several field surveys and archaeological excavations have brought into light the important human occupation of this place between the 5th and the 7th centuries AD. At the pieces of land excavated so far, a salting (food-processing) area, a possible workshop for the production of purple and a necropolis have been identified. An attempt to identify the provenance of a few marble fragments found during the latest excavations has been undertaken by means of direct and microscopic (petrographic) observation and cathodoluminisce (CL) analysis. The results point to the presence of both imported and Hispanic marbles at this small island: next to the Docimeion and grecco scritto mensae and basins, a shapless fragment of marble probably from the Almadén de la Plata, in sourthern Spain, has been identified.