The most valuable pigment of the Roman wall paintings was the red color
obtained from powdered cinnabar (Minium Cinnabaris pigment), the red
mercury sulfide (HgS), which was brought from mercury (Hg) deposits in
the Roman Empire. To address the question of whether sulfur isotope
signatures can serve as a rapid method to establish the provenance of
the red pigment in Roman frescoes, we have measured the sulfur isotope
composition (delta(34) S value in parts per thousand VCDT) in samples of
wall painting from the Roman city Aventicum (Avenches, Vaud,
Switzerland) and compared them with values from cinnabar from European
mercury deposits (Almaden in Spain, Idria in Slovenia, Monte Amiata in
Italy, Moschellandsberg in Germany, and Genepy in France). Our study
shows that the delta(34) S values of cinnabar from the studied Roman
wall paintings fall within or near to the composition of Almaden
cinnabar; thus, the provenance of the raw material may be deduced. This
approach may provide information on provenance and authenticity in
archaeological, restoration and forensic studies of Roman and Greek
frescoes. Copyright (c) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.