For many years, cultural property in general and archaeological artefacts have been liable to be stolen during and after the excavation process in order to be introduced to the black market. Globally, it is commonly estimated that the illicit trafficking of cultural heritage ranks among the biggest illicit trade in the world, grossing several billion dollars1. The challenge of the project is to be able to implement a safe technical solution which makes it possible to mark archaeological artefacts in a unique way. Carbon dots are a 0D nanomaterial made of a hybrid structure with a graphene like core of sp2 carbon and an outer shell of amorphous sp3 carbon. Since they are composed mainly of carbon, they constitute a safer alternative to heavy metals quantum dots and allow us to avoid trace contamination before analysis. Moreover, carbon black which is the basis of the black inks used, are chemically identical to C- dots. We integrated carbon dots synthetized using a protocol from Yan et al2 into a protective coating used for marking cultural artefacts. The coating produces orange photoluminescence under UV but also green light excitation, constituting a new kind of security marking. (1) Barker, A. W. Looting, the Antiquities Trade, and Competing Valuations of the Past. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2018, 47 (1), 455–474. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102116-041320. (2) Yan, F.; Zhang, H.; Yu, N.; Sun, Z.; Chen, L. Conjugate Area-Controlled Synthesis of Multiple-Color Carbon Dots and Application in Sensors and Optoelectronic Devices. Sens. Actuators B Chem. 2021, 329, 129263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2020.129263.