Tracing the provenance of ancient copper objects: A multivariate data analysis approach

A complete chemical characterization for selected Alpine-Appennines Cu-deposits, including major and minor elements, rare earth and 63Cu,t65Cu ratio measurements, was undertaken. This represent the first step of the final target of this work, which is to assess the provenance of ancient copper objects starting from the characterization of the minerals that were used for their production. A chemometric approach based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Squares - Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) was carried out to set provenance to chemical information correlations for the studied ores. Following this approach, a complete discrirnination of alì the investigated Cu-ores is achieved, and it is al o established which are the variables that mainly characterize a Cu-ore with respect to the others