Investigations on Tyrolian Marbles

Marble is appreciated as valuable working material. This has already been so in the Neolithicum, as sporadic findings indicate. Famous are the greek marbles which have been exploited since the antique, also the italian Carrara marble has a superb reputation. However, also the less spectacular occurrences in the Alps have been quarried since long. Besides some larger occurrences such as Gummern/Carinthia or Laas / South Tyrol / Italy, the smaller but numerous marbles which geologically belong to very different units have been exploited. The knowledge about these marbles is with regard to earthsciences and materialsciences very limited. In the course of this project a mineralogical, material -technical and geochemical characterisation of the very different Tyrolian marbles is planned. Two major tracks will be persued: i) On the basis of the results obtained material-science criteria shall be developed which allow to identify the geological provenance of Tyrolian marbles. This would address also a very exciting culture historical problem of the monument conservation namely the material provenance of marble artefacts. ii) Furthermore, the very sensitive weathering behaviour of marble will be studied on objects and in the fields under consideration of their environmental conditions. Additionally, it is intended to perform weathering experiments in model systems in order to determine parameter correlations which should promote a better understanding of weathering forms and their formation processes. Besides gains in basic understanding of the weathering phenomena on marble, this project will also provide valuable material science oriented knowledge for conservation stategies of marble objects. The results of the study will be incorporated into a database accessible for institutions concerned with earthscientific and material technical aspects of marble research as well for those which are concerned with protection and presentation of marble as an object of cultural heritage.