Specificity of scientific attribution of stone items (on the example of the polytechnic museum collection)

The paper presents the results of comprehensive researches of several stone products from the collection of the Mining Department of the Polytechnic Museum. It is shown that when attributing artistic stone items, it is necessary to conduct research in several areas of scientific knowledge - art history, evolution of stone art processing technologies, and mineralogy in combination with archival studies. The incorrect name of the material can lead to an erroneous determination of the time and place of the item creation. The attribution of the material from which the item was made should be carried out visually using reference collections stored in the oldest natural science museums. If visual diagnostics are not enough to identify the source of the material, it is necessary to conduct analytical studies with devices that do not destroy the material.