Search results for "archaeometry"
showing 10 items of 53 documents
Ceramic ethnoarchaeometry in Western Sardinia: Production of cooking ware at Pabillonis
2015
Ceramic ethnoarchaeology has been used to explore fully the chaîne opératoire and to understand all of the stages and factors involved in pottery production, such as raw material selection or paste recipes used by the potters. This work presents the results of the application of compositional analysis undertaken in the village of Pabillonis (western Sardinia, Italy), the main cooking ware production centre of the island. Pottery and local clays have been characterized using a combination of analytical techniques. By integrating the ethnographic information and the archaeometric approach, it was possible to reconstruct the operational sequence, exploring the relationship between the processi…
Archaeometric Applications of X-Ray and Neutron Techniques
2009
Cultural Heritage is part of our everyday life and its conservation is extremely important not only from the cultural point of view, but also from a practical one. This is particularly true for Italy, a country which lists the highest number of World Heritage sites. Italian heritage, largely embodied in buildings and works of art, has a wider range of interests. For example information buried in sunk ships is very important when trying to gain information on commercial routes, exchange of technology and similar. In the case of stones authentication of works of art in museums is also of great concern, particularly as a number of rather expensive fakes have been acquired by museums from dubio…
Electrochemical Characterization of Coinage Techniques the 17(th) Century: The maravedis Case
2017
[EN] The voltammetry of immobilized particles (VIMP) methodology was applied to the discrimination of Spanish maravedis produced in 10 different mints between 1661 and 1664 using characteristic signatures for the reduction of cuprite and tenorite in the patina of the coins and catalytic effects on the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The variation of the apparent tenorite/cuprite ratio with depth was fitted to potential laws differing from one mint to another for A Coruna, Burgos, Cordoba, Cuenca, Granada, Madrid, Trujillo, Segovia, Sevilla and Valladolid coins. Electrochemical data permitted to detect the changes in the composition (with lowering of the silver content) and manufacturing …
Raman spectroscopy characterization of 10-cash productions from the late Chinese emperors to the Republic
2017
[EN] The use of Raman spectroscopy for discriminating monetary emissions, a recurrent problem in much archaeological studies, is described. The method involves the record of Raman signatures of tenorite and crystalline and defective cuprite in the patina based on the idea that subtle, mint-characteristic variations in the composition and metallography of the base metal during the manufacturing process are reflected in the variation in depth of the composition and crystallinity of the corrosion patina. The technique was applied to a series of 10-cash copper coins produced around the transition between the Kuang Hsu and Hsuan Tung last Chinese emperors and the first Republic whose averaged co…
Electrochemical discrimination of mints: The last Chinese emperors Kuang Hsü and Hsüan T'ung monetary unification.
2017
[EN] An electrochemical methodology for discriminating monetary emissions, a recurrent problem in much archaeological studies, is introduced. The method is based on the record of voltammetric signatures of cuprite and tenorite corrosion products in the patina using a minimally invasive nanosampling following the voltammetry of immobilized particles methodology. A model for the depth variation of voltammetric electrochemical parameters characterizing the composition of the corrosion patinas is presented. This model permits to rationalize electrochemical data and discriminate different monetary emissions. The application of this technique, corroborated by electrochemical impedance spectroscop…
Ceramic ethnoarchaeometry in Sicily: recent traditional productions as a tool for understanding past manufactures
2015
As is well known ethnoarchaeology aims to help archaeologists in the reconstruction of ancient social and cultural habits and lifestyle. It has also been used for the better understanding of the main elements involved in the historical pottery production of a given territory: selection criteria of clayey raw materials; paste recipes used by local craftsmen; to test hypotheses of pottery provenance from a specific workshop (Peacock, 1982; Fulford & Peacock, 1984; Arnold et al., 1991; Costin, 2000; Stark et al., 2000; Buxeda et al., 2003). On the other hand, the works that apply physicochemical analytical methodologies to study traditional ceramic artefacts and clayey raw materials occur more…
A Marble Bust Newly Discovered by the Trapani Lombardo Family of Reggio Calabria (Southern Italy)
2023
This research concerns a stylistic and archaeometric study of an ancient marble female bust recently discovered by the Trapani Lombardo family of Reggio Calabria (Southern Italy) and delivered to the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape for the metropolitan city of Reggio Calabria and Vibo Valentia (SABAP). Based on the first technical, stylistic, and iconographic observations made by the competent bodies, it is a half-length portrait bust from the Roman era, which precisely had the function of faithfully reproducing the physiognomy of the depicted subject. The research aimed to establish the authenticity of the artwork and the origin of the raw material, providing indic…
Archaeometric study of execution techniques of white Attic vases: the case of the Perseus crater in Agrigento
2022
The white ground crater by the Phiale Painter (450–440 BC) exhibited in the “Pietro Griffo” Archaeological Museum in Agrigento (Italy) depicts two scenes from Perseus myth. The vase is of utmost importance to archaeologists because the figures are drawn on a white background with remarkable daintiness and attention to detail. Notwithstanding the white ground ceramics being well documented from an archaeological and historical point of view, doubts concerning the compositions of pigments and binders and the production technique are still unsolved. This kind of vase is a valuable rarity, the use of which is documented in elitist funeral rituals. The study aims to investigate the constituent m…
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…
Multidisciplinary Approaches to Study Ancient Cities in a Seismic Region
2022
The paper focuses on the strong connections between natural resources, environment, and urban development in the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine city of Hierapolis of Phrygia (Pamukkale, Turkey). The ancient city was founded on a travertine terrace crossed by an active fault, responsible for impressive geothermal phenomena, i.e., flowing of thermal water, emission of gases, and frequent earthquakes, while the surrounding territory offered various stone qualities (travertine, alabaster, marbles, etc.). These environmental features affected the cultural identity of Hierapolis and its urban layout, conditioning also the construction techniques and the monumentalization of the city. In recent…