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The Tomb of the Diver has been subject for many decades of fierce debate among archaeologists and classicists. Since its discovery in 1968, some scholars have considered it a unique example of the lost tradition of Greek painting, others have emphasized Etruscan or Italic parallels. More recently, a possible local production has been suggested. With the aim of trying to solve the archaeological question, an archaeometric comparison among this well-known artwork and several frescoed tombs coming from Hellenistic and Lucan necropolis was carried out. The multi-analytical study was focused on the identification of peculiar features of executive techniques and raw materials since the first period of the archaeological site. The analytical investigation has been preliminary based on a non-destructive approach, performed in-situ by portable equipment including imaging diagnostics and compositional spectroscopic techniques for identifying pigments and the conservation state of original painted surface; subsequently, a further deepening by using destructive techniques was performed in-lab for the mortar-based supports characterization. Archaeometric study suggested that technological choices slightly changed in a time span of about two centuries, highlighting important markers that allow clustering the contemporary artistic productions. Moreover, a comparison with mortars from temples decorations was provided to better understand the whole artistic context. The archaeometric data showed that the Tomb of the Diver could be traced back to a local artisanal tradition and therefore is neither Etruscan nor Greek, but the first and foremost an expression of the local elite culture of Paestum., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. The commercial affiliations do not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Structural analysis of marble statues, carried out by non-invasive and in situ methods, is crucial to define the state of conservation of the artworks and to identify the deterioration phenomena that can affect them. In this work, we combined in situ non-destructive techniques, ultrasonic tomography (US), ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence (UV-IF) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to study the bass-relief 'Madonna con Bambino' (Gorizia, Italy). The US revealed the presence of some metallic pivots, associated with areas of high sound velocity; moreover, a more degraded area has been identified in the lower part of the bass-relief. The acquired UV-IF image confirmed the presence of surface degradation, allowing a preliminary evaluation of the extension of a fracture, from surface to bulk. In addition, the different materials (both original and/or integrations) that compose the studied surface have been identified. The XRF has contributed to define the nature of the inorganic materials applied during undocumented previous restoration works on the surface as filler for lacunae.