Isotopes on the beach, Part 2: Neodymium isotopic analysis for the provenancing of Roman glass-making

In this study, we have evaluated the applicability of Nd isotopic analysis for the provenancing of Roman glass and we present a database of Nd isotopic compositions of possible sand raw materials from the western Mediterranean, as a means of comparison for the growing number of isotopic studies on ancient glass. The 143Nd/144Nd isotope ratio of sands is a good indicator for their geological (and sometimes geographical) provenance. The use of the isotopic signature of Nd as a proxy for the source of silica in glass is, however, not always straightforward because of the possible overlap of signatures from different suppliers.