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Fragments of marble revetment and floor slabs as well as some broken statuary and vessels were recovered from the excavation of a Roman temple in the harbor town of Berenike on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. Petrographic analyses, including optical, cathodoluminescence, and scanning electron microscopy as well as isotopic analyses (δ13C, δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr), were conducted to determine the provenance of the marble. The aim was to reconstruct the commercial ties that led to this prized building stone being brought to Berenike. Most, if not all, of the slabs are of banded gray to white marble showing properties indicative of a Prokonnesian origin. This marble, exploited on Marmara Island (Sea of Marmara, Turkey) and extensively utilized throughout the Mediterranean, including Egypt from at least the second century A.D., might have been procured from the marble depots in Alexandria. This could have involved engaging a team of Bithynian master craftsmen for the project, presumably to embellish the main temple of the city during the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian. The statuary and vessel finds are composed of white marble representing several sources. Some coarse‐grained specimens were surely extracted in Prokonnesos. For others, the source is uncertain and the likely candidates are Prokonnesos, Paros (Cyclades, Aegean Sea), and Ephesos (Aegean coast of Asia Minor). The fine‐grained varieties represented high‐quality Dokimian (Afyon region, Asia Minor) and most likely expensive Parian (lychnites type) marble. Marble from the ancient Gebel Rokham quarries in Egypt was also examined for comparison, but its properties have excluded this source in the case of the marble artifacts from Berenike analyzed in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roman‐period mummy portraits are considered to be ancient antecedents of modern portraiture. However, the techniques and materials used in their manufacture are not thoroughly understood. Analytical study of the pigments as well as the binding materials helps to address questions on what aspects of the painting practices originate from Pharaonic and/or Graeco‐Roman traditions, and can aid in determining the provenance of the raw materials from potential locations across the ancient Mediterranean and European worlds. Here, one of the largest assemblages of mummy portraits to remain intact since their excavation from the site of Tebtunis in Egypt was examined using multiple analytical techniques to address how they were made. The archaeological evidence suggests that these portraits were products of a single workshop and, correspondingly, they are found to be made using similar techniques and materials: wax‐based and lead white–rich paint combined with a variety of iron‐based pigments (including hematite, goethite and jarosite), as well as Egyptian blue, minium, indigo and madder lake to create subtle variations and tones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This article explores how concepts of 'trace' might help archaeologists disentangle and interpret the material remains of ordinary life. Trace is a theoretical vantage long exploited by social theorists to explore the unintentional, quotidian residues of ordinary people. The term trace is relevant to archaeology because it refocuses attention from active agency to more subtle undercurrents within daily life rhythms. I explore two Romano-Egyptian houses from the same city from a trace perspective in order to reveal the small-scale daily life choices of individuals. The results of this exploration suggest future directions for the archaeological use of trace to explore materiality, everyday life, and subtle signatures of multi-cultural scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Samples of red pigment from a group of seven Roman-period Egyptian mummies, known as red-shroud mummies, are investigated. Elemental analysis by inductively coupled plasma time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ICP–TOFMS) shows that the samples contain mostly Pb (83–92% by weight), along with 0.2–2.0% Sn. All of the samples are found to have similar trace element distributions when normalized to the continental crust, suggesting that they share a common geological origin. Lead isotope ratios are found to match the mixed lead sources typically associated with Rio Tinto, Spain – a site extensively mined for silver during the first centuryad. Raman microspectroscopy identifies the major phase of each sample to be red lead (Pb3O4) with a minor phase of lead tin oxide (Pb2SnO4). Lead tin oxide does not occur naturally, and its incidental occurrence within the sample indicates that the material was heated under oxidative conditions at temperatures in excess of 650°C. In archaeological contexts, the high-temperature oxidative treatment of lead is typically associated with metallurgical refinement processes such as cupellation. Based on this evidence, it is argued that the pigment was produced out of litharge associated with silver cupellation at the Rio Tinto site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]