Study of lapis lazuli used for amulets by ancient Egyptian: indications for an Afghan provenance by means of micro-PIXE and XRF measurements

Lapis lazuli have been widely used for the realisation of amulets by ancient Egyptian. The association of raw material provenance to man-made objects is helpful to reconstruct ancient trade routes. We carried out a systematic study of rocks using a multitechnique approach and focusing on materials from: Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Siberia. The characteristic provenance markers already found have been compared with the results on archaeological finds from the Egyptian Museum of Firenze (first millennium BC). The combination of micro- PIXE and portable-XRF gave us a scientific indication that the material used by ancient Egyptians show the same characteristics of Afghan rocks.