Search results for "Archaeometry"
showing 10 items of 53 documents
Electrochemical discrimination of manufacturing types of pottery from Magna Mater Temple and Fora of Nerva and Caesar (Rome, Italy)
2018
Abstract The voltammetry of immobilized microparticles (VIMP) methodology is applied to a series of pottery samples from the Roman sites of Nerva's Forum (second half of 9th-early 11th A.D), Caesar's Forum (second half of 9th-early 11th A.D) and Magna Mater Temple (III century). The VIMP sampling applied to voltammetric and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements was applied by the first time to acquire archaeometric information on archaeological pottery. VIMP measurements using pressed sample pellets on gold electrodes in contact with air-saturated 0.10 M H2SO4 have permitted to detect voltammetric signals for the reduction/oxidation of Fe and Mn minerals as well as catal…
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…
Solid-state electrochemical characterization of emissions and authorities producing Roman brass coins
2020
[EN] The voltammetry of immobilized particles (VIMP) is applied to describe the solid state electrochemistry of brass. This methodology, which involves sampling at the nanogram level, is applied to discriminate mints/authorities producing different Roman monetary emissions covering since the Republic (88 BCE) to Domitianus (55-96 CE) Upon attachment to graphite electrodes in contact with aqueous acetate buffer at pH 4.75, well defined voltarnmetric responses were obtained centered on Cu- and Zn-localized signals whose intensity can be correlated to EMP data, being sensitive to the contents of Zn (15-30 wt.%) and Sn (0.01-1.1 wt.%). Voltammetric data, combined with ATR-FTIR and FIB-PESEM/EDS…
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…
Punic Amphorae at Entella (Sicily): Archaeometric Characterisation of this Possible Consumption Centre
2015
This paper reports the archaeometric characterisation of a number of Phoenician-Punic amphorae from the ancient site of Entella in western Sicily. Entella lies in the Sicani Mountains, along the left bank of the Hypsas-Belice river, approximately 40km from its mouth (Fig.1a). It is considered to be one of the most important indigenous settlements of western Sicily, dominating the main terrestrial and fluvial commercial routes between the south-western and northern shores of the island (Nenci 1988/89; Vaggioli 2001; Moggi and Gulletta 2001). Ancient historians first cited Entella for the unfaithful behaviour of Campanian mercenaries. During the first Punic War, Entella was a flourishing urba…
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…
Land Snails as a Diet Diversification Proxy during the Early Upper Palaeolithic in Europe
2014
Despite the ubiquity of terrestrial gastropods in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological record, it is still unknown when and how this type of invertebrate resource was incorporated into human diets. In this paper, we report the oldest evidence of land snail exploitation as a food resource in Europe dated to 31.3-26.9 ka yr cal BP from the recently discovered site of Cova de la Barriada (eastern Iberian Peninsula). Mono-specific accumulations of large Iberus alonensis land snails (Ferussac 1821) were found in three different archaeological levels in association with combustion structures, along with lithic and faunal assemblages. Using a new analytical protocol based on taphonomic…
The use of a European coinage alloy to compare the detection limits of mobile XRF systems. A feasibility study
2007
The investigation of archaeological and historical materials makes use of techniques that, though borrowed from other fields of research and industrial production, frequently have to be 're-invented' because of peculiar characteristics of the analysed objects. Artistic relevance, limited movability, compositional and structural heterogeneity radically change the experimental approach and often require ad hoc designed equipment. These considerations also apply to x-ray fluorescence, especially regarding mobile systems. The extensive development and use of mobile spectrometers has produced an extremely diversified context and created the need for common criteria to evaluate their performances…
Origin and Diet of the Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers on the Mediterranean Island of Favignana (Ègadi Islands, Sicily)
2012
Hunter-gatherers living in Europe during the transition from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene intensified food acquisition by broadening the range of resources exploited to include marine taxa. However, little is known on the nature of this dietary change in the Mediterranean Basin. A key area to investigate this issue is the archipelago of the Ègadi Islands, most of which were connected to Sicily until the early Holocene. The site of Grotta d'Oriente, on the present-day island of Favignana, was occupied by hunter-gatherers when Postglacial environmental changes were taking place (14,000-7,500 cal BP). Here we present the results of AMS radiocarbon dating, palaeogenetic and isotopic ana…
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…