Archeometric characterization of prehistoric grindstones from Milazzo Bronze Age settlement (Sicily, Italy)

The results of a petrographic and geochemical
study carried out on archeological grindstones allow to provide
new constraints on protohistoric commercial exchanges
over the Mediterranean area. Eleven grindstones, discovered
in an archeological site located in Milazzo (Messina, Sicily)
and dated from the Early Bronze Age, have been investigated
by geochemical and petrographic techniques. The raw materials
are mainly volcanic rocks characterized by calc-alkaline
and K-alkaline affinities with volcanic arc geochemical signature.
Only one sample, made of basalt belonging to the Naalkaline
series, shows an intraplate signature. The comparison
with the available literature data for similar rocks allowed
constraining the volcanic origin of the exploited lavas.
While the intraplate-type raw material came from Mt. Etna
Volcano (Sicily), the arc-type volcanic rocks are mostly
trachyandesites, basaltic andesites, and one rhyolite.
Although most of them come from the Aeolian Arc, a provenance
of some samples from the Aegean Arc cannot be
excluded. This last region could represent the most probable
provenance area for the rhyolite sample.

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