In Roman and Byzantine times, natron glass was traded throughout the known world in the form of chunks. Production centers of such raw glass, active from the 4th to 8th century AD, were identified in Egypt and Syro-Palestine. However, early Roman primary glass units remain unknown from excavation or scientific analysis. The ancient author Pliny described in 70 AD that besides Egyptian and Levantine resources, also raw materials from Italy and the Gallic and Spanish provinces were used in glass making. In this study, the primary provenance of 1ste3rd century AD natron vessel glass is investigated. The use of combined Sr and Nd isotopic analysis allows the distinguishing and characterizing of different sand raw materials used for primary glass production. The isotope data obtained from the glass samples are compared to the signatures of primary glass from known production centers in the eastern Mediterranean and a number of sand samples from the regions described by Pliny the Elder as possible sources of primary glass. Eastern Mediterranean primary glass has a Nile dominated Mediterranean Nd signature (higher than À6.0 3 Nd), while glass with a primary production location in the western Mediterranean or north-western Europe should have a different Nd signature (lower than À7.0 3 Nd). Most Roman glass has a homogeneous 87 Sr/ 86 Sr signature close to the modern sea water composition, likely caused by the (intentional) use of shell as glass raw material. In this way, strontium and neodymium isotopes now prove that Pliny's writings were correct: primary glass production was not exclusive to the Levant or Egypt in early Roman days, and factories of raw glass in the Western Roman Empire will have been at play.

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The sediment-hosted stratiform Cu-Co mineralization of the Luiswishi and Kamoto deposits in the Katangan Copperbelt is hosted by the Neoproterozoic Mines Subgroup. Two main hypogene Cu-Co sulfide mineralization stages and associated gangue minerals (dolomite and quartz) are distinguished. The first is an early diagenetic, typical stratiform mineralization with finegrained minerals, whereas the second is a multistage synorogenic stratiform to stratabound mineralization with coarse-grained minerals. For both stages, the main hypogene Cu-Co sulfide minerals are chalcopyrite, bornite, carrollite, and chalcocite. These minerals are in many places replaced by supergene sulfides (e.g., digenite and covellite), especially near the surface, and are completely oxidized in the weathered superficial zone and in surface outcrops, with malachite, heterogenite, chrysocolla, and azurite as the main oxidation products. The hypogene sulfides of the first Cu-Co stage display δ 34 S values (−10.3‰ to +3.1‰ Vienna Canyon Diablo Troilite (V-CDT)), which partly overlap with the δ 34 S signature of framboidal pyrites (−28.7‰ to 4.2‰ V-CDT) and have Δ 34 S SO4-Sulfides in the range of 14.4‰ to 27.8‰. This fractionation is consistent with bacterial sulfate reduction (BSR). The hypogene sulfides of the second Cu-Co stage display δ 34 S signatures that are either similar (−13.1‰ to +5.2‰ V-CDT) to the δ 34 S values of the sulfides of the first Cu-Co stage or comparable (+18.6‰ to +21.0‰ V-CDT) to the δ 34 S of Neoproterozoic seawater. This indicates that the sulfides of the second stage obtained their sulfur by both remobilization from early diagenetic sulfides and from thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR). The carbon (−9.9‰ to −1.4‰ Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite (V-PDB)) and oxygen (−14.3‰ to −7.7‰ V-PDB) isotope signatures of dolomites associated with the first Cu-Co stage are in agreement with the interpretation that these dolomites are by-products of BSR. The carbon (−8.6‰ to +0.3‰ V-PDB) and oxygen (−24.0‰ to −10.3‰ V-PDB) isotope signatures of dolomites associated with the second Cu-Co stage are mostly similar to the δ 13 C (−7.1‰ to +1.3‰ V-PDB) and δ 18 O (−14.5‰ to −7.2‰ V-PDB) of the host rock and of the dolomites of the first Cu-Co stage. This Editorial handling: H. Frimmel Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article

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Lead and strontium isotope analyses were performed by thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) on Roman to Byzantine iron artefacts and iron ores from the territory of ancient Sagalassos (south-west Turkey), to evaluate Pb and Sr isotopes for provenance determination of ores for local iron production. It can be demonstrated that for early Roman artefacts and hematite iron ore processed in early Roman times from Sagalassos proper, as well as for magnetite placer sands and early Byzantine raw iron from the territory of the city, Sr isotopes are much less ambiguous than Pb isotopes in providing clearly coherent signatures for ore and related iron objects. Late Roman iron objects were produced from iron ores that as yet remain unidentified. Early Byzantine iron artefacts display more scatter in both their Pb and Sr isotope signatures, indicating that many different ore sources may have been used. Our study demonstrates that iron objects can be precisely analysed for their Sr isotopic composition, which, compared to Pb isotopes, appears to be a much more powerful tool for distinguishing between chronological groups and determining the provenance of raw materials.

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