Volcanic rocks medieval building materials from north-eastern Sicily and southern Calabria

In the Arabic Norman architecture of XIIth until XVth century in Sicily it is recorded the use of a particular stone locally named "pumice" both in building and decoration. This relatively light material was commonly widespread and traditionally related to Etnean and Aeolian volcanic areas. However, a clear assessment of their provenance and a petrological definition is still lacking in the literature. Some churches and edifices of Medieval age in different locations of N.E. Sicily and southern Calabria, have been sampled. The study was performed with optical microscopy, XRF and INAA analyses. Petrochemical features substantiate the provenance from the aforementioned volcanic areas and furthermore provides indications for the origin of investigated samples. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier SAS.