Author(s): Ding, Y ; Mirão, J ; Redol, P ; Dias, L ; Moita, P ; Angelini, E ; Grassini, S ; Schiavon, N
Date: 2022
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10174/31488
Origin: Repositório Científico da Universidade de Évora
Subject(s): Limestone; Batalha Monastery; Archaeometry; Provenance
To assess the provenance of the limestones used in the construction and restoration of the Batalha Monastery in central Portugal, stone samples collected from the monument and from five limestone quarries in the region surrounding the building were investigated by energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (ED-XRF), powder X-ray diffractometry (PXRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Ca-Sr binary diagrams from the ED-XRF result indicated the source of the samples collected from different parts of the monastery. Thin-section observation supplemented the petrographic evidence for this identification. PXRD and TGA were also used to acquire information on the mineral and chemical composition of the stones. Preliminary results suggest that the monastery baluster was made of stone from the Valinho do Rei or Reguengo do Fetal quarries, whereas part of the church railing, the north-aisle eaves arch and Royal Cloister were made with stone from the Pidiogo or Cabeço do Roxo quarries.
The research presented in this paper was carried out mainly using data collected at Universidade de Évora, Politecnico di Torino and Direcao-Geral do Patrimonio Cultural, as part of H2020-MSCA-ITN-2017, ED-ARCHMAT (ESR1). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 766311.
