Characterisation of New Zealand nephrite for forensic purposes

Abstract

The strategy used in this study showed that it is possible to discriminate between sources of nephrite at both an intra- and inter-source level within New Zealand. In addition, an exploratory investigation showed that New Zealand nephrite could be differentiated from the few nephrite specimens from foreign sources that were available for comparison. Recommendations are made for the protection of the New Zealand nephrite resource and for casework, based on the results obtained in this study