Petrographical and geochemical characterization of Comblanchien limestone (Bourgogne, France): A fingerprint of the building stone provenance

The Comblanchien limestone is a well-known building stone that deserves a quantitative characterization in order to be able to certify its origin. We compare petrographical and geochemical characteristics of limestones commercialized under the name of Comblanchien to those of one of their competitors (VATC, a Portuguese coated grain-bearing limestone). From macroscopic and microscopic observations, the distinction is somehow difficult but the coated grain-bearing Comblanchien samples have delta C-13 values (from +1.75 to +2.25 parts per thousand) different from those of the VATC sample (negative delta C-13 value). As an example of application of these results, three samples from a building site near Paris are also studied in order to verify their provenance. We conclude that they do not come from quarries from the Comblanchien area, but likely from Portugal. The study shows that a detailed analysis of building limestones may provide a robust tool for discriminating between currently mined stones of different provenances, and thus open the possibility to attach to a given limestone a fingerprint, an identity card, and if required a commercial label. (C) 2011 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.