Petrographic, mineralogical, and stable isotopes (delta C-13, delta O-18
values) compositions were used to characterise marbles and sedimentary
carbonate rocks from central Morocco, which are considered to be a
likely source of ornamental and building material from Roman time to the
present day. This new data set was used in the frame of an archaeometric
provenance study on Roman artefacts from the town of Thamusida (Kenitra,
north Morocco), to assess the potential employment of these rocks for
the manufacture of the archaeological materials. A representative set of
samples from marbles and other carbonate rocks (limestone, dolostone)
were collected in several quarries and outcrops in the Moroccan Meseta,
in a region extending from the Meknes-Khenifra alignment to the Atlantic
Ocean. All the samples were studied using a petrographic, mineralogical
and geochemical methods. The petrographic and minerological
investigations (optical microscopy, electron microscopy, X-ray
diffraction) allowed to group the carbonate rocks in limestones,
foliated limestone, diagenetic breccias and dolostone. The limestones
could be further grouped as mudstones, wackestones-packstones, crinoid
grainstones, oolitic grainstone and floatstones. Textural differences
allowed to define marbles varieties. The stable carbon and oxygen
isotope composition proved to be quite useful in the discrimination of
marble sources, with apparently less discriminatory potential for
carbonate rocks.