Five varieties of Belgian black marbles are investigated in order to discriminate them. Their age ranges from Frasnian (Golzinne) to Visean (Dinant, Theux, Basècle, Lives). Three methods were used: petrography, magnetic susceptibility and geochemistry of major elements and Rare Earth Elements (REE). The petrographic analyze reveals 16 microfacies reflecting very quiet environments, sporadically perturbed by more energetic phenomena like turbidites or storms. These microfacies are integrated in two depositional models: a quiet offshore setting, below or close to the storm wave base (Salet, Basècles) and a shallow but very restricted zone, protected from waves and currents (Lives and Golzinne). The magnetic susceptibility results show that all the black marbles are characterized by very low, even slightly negative values, except the Golzinne one which shows higher values. Geochemical data allow to discriminate between the Theux black marble (low SiO 2 content), and the Basècles samples (low Al 2 O 3 , K 2 O and REE contents). These methods could be useful to determine/refine the origin of archaeological stones, even if all these analyses are destructive. Two archeologic samples were investigated in order to identify their possible origin.

This study uses an integrated approach, including sedimentology, geochemistry and hysteresis magnetic measurements on a million year Givetian sequence in the southern margin of the Ardennes carbonate platform (France) to test the reliability of magnetic susceptibility (χ) records as interregional correlation tools in remagnetized settings. Furthermore, we aim to better understand the N-S depositional variations and sea-level fluctuations in the Ardennes. Sedimentological analyses revealed a complex platform evolution displaying a variety of shallow-and off-reef paleoenvironmental rocks, which ultimately allowed us to improve the sedimentological model of this area and to constrain the main sea-level fluctuations within the southern margin of the Ardennes platform. Comparison of the χ curve of this succession with previously published time-equivalent records in the western margin of the platform indicates a clear correlation between the two areas, despite the distance between the locales, their different sedimentology background and the remagnetization affecting the entire region. In contrast, the comparison of these χ profiles from the Ardennes (SW Rhenohercynian Massif, Belgian and France) with coeval data from the Rheinisches Schiefergebirge (NE Rhenohercynian Massif, Germany) do not show obvious correlations. Therefore, it is inferred that synsedimentary autogenic processes (e.g., vicinity to landmasses, wave agitation), which operate at small spatial and temporal scales affected the χ signal and could cause the lack of correlation between χ profiles.