One of the great statues of antiquity has been connected to its likely birthplace by analysis of its marble.
The Colossus of the Naxians on the Greek island of Delos once stood about 9 metres tall, but is now in pieces. One is at the British Museum in London, while the rest are in Greece. The statue’s name refers to the island of Naxos, which has been a major source of marble since the Greek archaic era from 800 BC to 480 BC – but it isn’t from either of two known quarries of that period.
Instead, the marble has the chemical signature of a deposit in another part of the island, found by Scott Pike at Willamette University in Oregon. He will present his results at a meeting of the Geological Society of America on 11 October.