The Badminton Sarcophagus in the Metropolitan Museum/New York

Tha Badminton sarcophagus is a splendid and very well preserved 3rd century work. It was found in Rome and according to an inscription it was installed in Badminton House in Gloucestershire/England in 1733. It features the triumph of Dyonisos and the Seasons in a very high quality of execution.

The white marble is fine to medium grained and of high quality with a remakable translucency.

The isotopic composition of the sample does not match any of the known compositional fields of the ancient marbles. The high quality and translucency suggest Parian lychnites, very faint grayish layers hint to Prokonnesian origin. Therefore a multimethod analysis was carried out. Unfortunately due to the small sample size no reliable inclusion fluid data are available.

By a combination of different analytical methods, the marble of the sarcophagus was identified to be Parian lychnites. The results of the provenance analysis are, to some extent, surprising, because the Badminton sarcophagus is the only object of this kind assigned as a Parian lychnites.