Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis of the marble façade of the Certosa di Pavia: Materials provenancing and problematics related to decay

The Certosa di Pavia is a magnificent monastic structure built at the end of Middle Age. Many marble elements from the façade have been sampled and analyzed by INAA. In order, to confirm the provenance reported by historical records (Carrara and Candoglia), the whole compositional database was submitted to a statistical processing in comparison with a number of Mediterranean marble supply areas. This gave uncertain results, probably due to alteration. The distribution of the REE, and the depth of the europium anomaly in particular, were then investigated, and much better diagnostic results were obtained