Provenancing of a marble artefact from the Etruscan town of Chiusi (Siena, Italy): a contribution to the knowledge of trade exchanges between Etruria and the Central Aegean in the Archaic period

A fragment of marble sculpture recently discovered in the VII-V century BC PT1-A archaeological unit at Chiusi (Tuscany) has been analyzed in detail from a morphological, minero-petrographical and compositional standpoint. Archaeometric result indicate a Naxian provenance, probably from the Apollonas quarry. Historical documents indicate that quarry exploitation caesed at the beginning of V century BC, thus providing a lower chronological limit to the artifact's age. This, coupled with a stylistic analysis of the fragment, allow us to surmise that the original sculpture was a Greek kore. The occurrence of this sculpture at Chiusi may have relevant implications in the comprehension of the trade and political relationships between inner Etruria and the Aegean world in the Archaic period.