Raman Spectroscopy as a Tool for Garnet Analysis and Investigation on Samples from Different Sources

摘要

During the Hellenistic period, Garnet was a popular stone for use both as seals and as decorative inlay in jewellery¹. The Collectors of garnets and minerals often attach great importance to the provenance or country of origin². Therefore, “the goal of origin determination” is to provide the geographic provenance of a garnet and can be defined as: the attribution of a stone to a specific type of deposit and the attribution of a stone to a mining area, a geographic locality, or country. In this research work we present the identification and the provenance of 9 garnets from 7 different localities. This is possible because the full range of properties of a garnet measured and observed in the laboratory reflect the specific conditions of its genetic background during the natural crystallization process. We used Raman spectroscopy analysis as a tool which provides even further information to distinguish garnets from different localities. Since each specific member of the isomorphous series shows a characteristic pattern, the Raman Effect can be used as a tool of identification. Our experimental results illustrate this concept.