ABSTRACT
This study of five of the major emerald mining localities within the SikaitZubara region of Egypt's Eastern Desert investigates the potential for provenancing emeralds both from specific countries and from specific ancient Egyptian mines. The gemmological examination of several samples from SikaitZubara and elsewhere indicates that much of the geochemical variation in world emeralds is mirrored within single grains of emerald tailings; there are, however, two sources of emerald that can be distinguished from those of Egypt: the Urals and Colombia. These observations provide the potential for investigations of the world emerald market during the time of operation of the Egyptian mines and also the detection of forgeries manufactured from New World emeralds. The analyses also contribute to the general debate concerning the validity of archaeological provenancing, suggesting firstly that analysis must study variation within single grains as well as between grains sampled from different regions, and secondly that purely geochemical definitions of 'sources' or 'provenances' do not necessarily provide ready-made solutions to archaeological problems concerning the spatial movement of raw materials and artefacts.
