Search results for " Archaeometry"

Integrated analytical methodologies for the study of corrosion processes in archaeological bronzes

2011

Abstract The investigations on structure and micro-chemical composition of archaeological metal alloys are needed in archaeometry. The aim of this study is devoted both to acquire information about their provenance and production technology, and to improve our understanding about the corrosion processes. In this paper we present the study of the corrosion phenomena of bronze samples, laboratory-made according to binary, ternary and quaternary alloys typical of Roman archaeometallurgical production through an integrated methodology based on the use of non or micro invasive physical techniques. Among the analysed samples, two were artificially aged through burial in the archaeological site of…

SEM–EDS ANALYSIS AS A RAPID TOOL FOR DISTINGUISHING CAMPANIAN A WARE AND SICILIAN IMITATIONS

2013

The aim of this work is to examine whether it is possible to find chemical markers that allow a distinction to be made between the imported black glossed ‘Campanian A’ and the Sicilian imitation (end of fourth to first century BC) of these productions by carrying out quantitative chemical microanalysis of the slip using the SEM–EDS technique. The efficiency of the proposed analytical method has been tested on a set of ceramic samples corresponding to Sicilian black gloss imitations whose ceramic body has already been characterized petrographically by thin-section microscopy and chemically by XRF. The analytical data point to Na2O as a suitable chemical marker to distinguish between original…

Marble and stone revetment and pavements: Context and provenance

2022

Earlier excavations and survey at Vagnari furnished hardly any evidence for the use of marble at the site, and so the vicus was considered to be a low status settlement, with only a few rooms having been elegant enough to decorate them with marble floors or revetment. The fragments recovered were not analysed scientifically to determine the location of the quarries from which the marbles came. Of particular interest, however, were two small fragments of inscriptions on white marble retrieved from the rubble fill dumped in the 4th century AD in the reservoir. These originally may have been attached, when intact, to votive or funerary monuments, suggesting that the occasional commemorative mo…

Petrographic and geochemical characterization of Archaic-Hellenistic tableware production at Solunto, Sicily

2009

A selected assortment of Archaic-Hellenistic tableware samples from Solunto, a Phoenician-Punic site located 20 km east of Palermo (Sicily), has been subjected to thin-section petrography and chemical analysis (XRF). In this settlement several ceramic kilns remained operative over a long time period (7th to 3rd century B.C.). The main goal of this analytical study is to distinguish the ceramics manufactured locally from regional and off-island imports. Analytical results were matched to similar data concerning local natural clay sources and to coeval tableware productions from other sites in the same area. The ceramic pastes used by the ancient craftsmen of Solunto in the case of this class…

Building ceramics: Brick, tile, and clay

2022

Tiles for use in construction were made in quantity at Vagnari, as Alastair Small’s investigations made clear. He uncovered one tile kiln in the vicus area north of the ravine and five south of the ravine that were producing tiles from the 1st to the 4th century AD, although not all at the same time (Small 2011b: 231–64). There may well have been more, as yet undiscovered, kilns in and around the settlement, together with the requisite tile-making provisions, such as drying sheds or yards and large ponds or basins for mixing clay and water. Archaeologically explored and well-preserved tile-making facilities of local and regional importance in northeast Spain give us an idea of the complex p…

Aspetti tipo-cronologici e archeometrici delle ceramiche africane nel territorio di Cignana (Naro, AG, Sicilia)

2020

Il progetto di ricerca, condotto in cotutela tra l'Università di Palermo e Aix-Marseille Université, si basa sullo studio delle ceramiche africane importate in Sicilia tra la fine del I e il VII secolo d.C.. La ricerca si basa sui frammenti - tutte le classi incluse - raccolti dal gruppo di ricerca di Palermo durante le ricognizioni archeologiche nei dintorni della villa romana di Cignana (Agrigento) e nell'entroterra di Termini Imerese (Palermo). L'approccio multidisciplinare archeologico ed archeometrico, condotto in collaborazione con diversi specialisti di queste discipline, ha permesso di definire l'origine delle diverse produzioni e di riflettere sulla loro circolazione in Sicilia, in…

Thin-section petrography and chemistry of arcaic indigenous pottery from western Sicily settlements.

2005

Social and technological changes in the ceramic production of the Northern Levant during the LBA/IA transition: New evidence about the Sea People iss…

2019

Abstract The transition from the Late Bronze Age (LBA) to the Iron Age (IA) in the Levant is marked by the collapse of the Egyptian and Hittite empires, which dominated the political scene of the 14th–13th century BCE. The role of the Sea People, groups of migrants who were defeated by the Egyptian king Ramses III around 1175 BCE, is the focal point concerning this period. After the collapse of the LBA empires, written sources disappeared, and the archaeologists’ primary tool to define cultural processes is to analyze the evolution of pottery. Because of this, studies about the distribution of Aegeanizing ceramic production, considered here to have derived from the Sea People culture, can p…

The Dolia Defossa and viticulture at Vagnari

2022

At Vagnari, the fabric of the dolia defossa was distinctively different from that present in all the other ceramics from the site, as it was a distinctive orangey-red with black, glassy particles and reddish-brown grit fragments. The surviving lid fragment, on the other hand, is made of a fairly fine buff clay, suggesting it was made somewhere else. It is not unusual that dolia and lids might be made of different clays and in different workshops, as they are in Gallia Narbonensis, where some analysed lids were made in Rome, but the vessels were local. The recognition that it is important to conduct fabric analyses on dolia retrieved in archaeological excavations, whether on land or in the s…

Archaeometric characterization of late Archaic ceramic from Erice (Sicily) aimed to provenance determination

2019

A set of 20 ceramic samples was autoptically selected from the numerous findings recovered from the stratigraphic excavations of the late Archaic city walls of Erice (western Sicily), in order to be analyzed with archaeometric techniques for provenance determination. The excavations were recently carried out as part of a research project funded by the Freie Universiat Berlin and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. Specifically, the ceramic material consists of tableware with a painted geometric decoration of presumed local/regional production, as well as apparently imported black-glazed pottery. Both the categories can be traced back to a chronological period between the second half/last quarter …