Geochemical characterization of “Lorraine limestones” from the Saint-Paul Cathedral of Liège (Belgium): assumptions for the true provenance of the building stones

Abstract

We investigate the provenance of the ochre building stones called "Lorraine limestones" used for architectural specific elements of the Saint-Paul Cathedral in Liège (Belgium) between the thirteenth and fifteenth century. A multi-analytical approach, including archives study, petrography and Rare Earth Elements geochemistry, has been performed to characterize the stones used in the church and to compare them with ochre limestones outcropping in the north-east of the Paris Basin. Our study suggests that a very restricted geographical area near the ancient port of Donchery (Ardennes, France) including Dom-le-Mesnil and Hannogne ancient quarries of Bajocian limestones (Middle Jurassic) should clearly be regarded as the potential origin location for the stones used in the Saint-Paul Cathedral.

Potential Discrimination of Belgian Black Marbles Using Petrography, Magnetic Susceptibility and Geochemistry

“…Discrimination of marbles/rocks using geochemistry has been successfully applied in various cases, such as REE geochemistry in the Lorraine ochre limestones (e.g. Lecuit et al, ). Our geochemical data allow us to discriminate: the Theux site, using its relatively low SiO 2 content (< 1.0%), most probably related to low detritic supplies; the Theux and Basècles samples from the other sites, using their low Al 2 O 3 (< 0.6% for Theux and < 0.5% for Basècles), K 2 O (< 0,1% for both the sites) and REE contents (< 10 ppm for Basècles and < 15 ppm for Theux – note that two samples from Lives also show REE content <10 ppm), most probably also related to low detritic supplies; the Golzinne site, using its high Fe 2 O 3 content >0.4% (note that 2 samples from Salet also show Fe 2 O 3 content >0.4%), most probably associated to the high pyrite content. The geochemical results do not allow us to characterize the samples from Lives and Salet.…”

Moving to the land: First archaeometric study of chert procurement atCueva de la Cocina(Eastern Iberia)

“…For example, among the possible markers, rare-earth elements (REE: La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, and Sc and Y) have been shown to be particularly effective in discriminating different types of cherts and solving provenance issues (Elefanti et al, 2021;Finkel et al, 2019;Olofsson & Rodushkin, 2011;Ramacciotti et al, 2019a). Indeed, robust geochemical studies proved that different sedimentary environments distinguish chert through characteristic REE levels and fractionation (Murray, 1994) and they were used as provenance markers in studies carried out on a wide range of geoarchaeological materials (Aura Tortosa et al, 2020;Gallello et al, 2016;Lecuit et al, 2018;Ramacciotti et al, 2019bRamacciotti et al, , 2020. However, discriminating between chert deposits is often a challenging task since chert is composed almost entirely of silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ), and most metals are found at trace concentrations with frequently overlapping distributions, especially working at a local scale and with outcrops within the same geological levels (Speer, 2016), although these analytical approaches have also been successfully used (Parish & Werra, 2018).…”

Editorial to the topical collection in Environmental Earth Sciences “Stone in the architectural heritage: from quarry to monuments—environment, exploitation, properties and durability”

“…The rehabilitation of the architectural heritage must be done according to petrophysical criteria, instead of using exclusively an aesthetic valuation (Martínez-Martínez et al 2018). Whenever possible the original material should be used (Lecuit et al 2018), and should be located near the architectural complexes since the location is the key factor for the stone selection rather than the specific properties of the stone (Lange et al 2018;Columbu 2018). However, the replacement of the original material must be considered when the micro-environmental conditions related with architectural constraints cause specific decay problems (Catarino et al 2018).…”