Volcanic rock Bronze Age millstones of Apulia, Southern Italy: Lithology and provenance

Twenty-three samples of volcanic-rock Bronze Age (XIX - X C. b.C.) millstones from ten archaeological sites of Apulia were studied by both petrological and geochemical methods. All the millstones are of the saddle-type, and all are made of hauyne bearing tephrites and phonolite-tephrites typical of the Mt. Vulture volcano. Subsequently, in Classic-Ellenistic Age (V - II C. b.C.) millstones mainly of the hupper-rubber type from Mt. Etna were preferred so that the diffusion of Vulture millstones decreased in the course of time.