Search

The northern slope of Mt. Vesuvius contains some interesting archaeological sites, including the site discovered in the town of Pollena Trocchia, where the remains, dated to between the 79 and 472 CE eruptions, document the transition from the Roman to late Roman cultural and socioeconomic settings. Profound changes occurred in this time interval, which can be inferred from changes in the ceramic manufacturing processes. Common wares, as the most widespread ceramic class in the archaeological record, are a useful example that illustrates this technological transformation. Seventeen samples of tableware, distinguished into three ceramic classes according to the method of slip application (i.e., Slipped Ware, Painted Ware “a straccio,” and Painted Ware), were analyzed. The results highlight the use of high-CaO clayey raw materials compositionally similar to Apennine clayey deposits. The clay bodies were occasionally tempered with sandy-silt materials composed of volcanic grains with lesser amounts of siliciclastic fragments. Firing temperatures ranged from 800 to 950°C, as suggested by quantitative X-ray powder diffraction and microstructural analyses combined with colorimetric measurements of the ceramic bodies. Micro-Raman analyses performed on slips revealed the use of ochre for decorating the vessels; it was applied in a different way, representing an actual technological change.

The important discoveries at the recent archaeological excavations at Punta d'Alaca site in the west side of the Vivara island (Campania region) highlighted the presence of a Bronze Age thriving settlement attesting the development of a flourishing ceramic production, mainly specialized in the manufacturing of common wares. The archaeometric study performed on twenty representative samples by means of chemical and minero-petrographic techniques revealed that pottery was produced in-situ; however, locally-manufactured vessels here coexisted with imported ones. Coarse-textured, local potteries were made by low-CaO clays mixed with volcanic temper consistent with the volcanic products of Campanian volcanoes. The firing (likely a pit firing) was done in rough conditions, as proved by mineralogical evidence that suggest variable firing temperatures. In fact, low firing temperatures (

Ceramic building materials (CBM) are interesting archaeological items for gathering the material culture identity and urban setting of the ancient populations since their production is generally related to the local availability of clayey raw materials and advancements of technological skills of ancient makers. This paper investigates the Hellenistic and Roman productions of ceramic building materials from the archaeological site of Témesa on the Tyrrhenian coastline of Calabria region (southern Italy), a settlement where a flourishing ceramic tradition has been attested for all of its occupation phases, from the late Archaic to the Roman period. Here, the local availability of clayey and sandy raw materials permitted the development of a thriving worksite. A combined study of mineralogical, petrographic and micropaleontological features of archaeological samples and geological raw materials collected nearby the archaeological settlement, permitted to constrain the raw materials sources, and investigate the technological level achieved between the second half of the 4th century BCE and the 3rd century CE. This study highlighted that most of CBM was made by mixing sands from a nearby fluvial deposit with upper Miocene clayey raw materials. Chemical composition and micropaleontological investigation of the foraminiferal content of archaeological samples and clays validated the possible exploitation of local raw materials. Textural parameters and the mineralogical assemblage of temper grains, characterized by the peculiar presence of metamorphic lithics, also attested the use of Savuto river sands. Ceramic technology accounts for a firing process at reasonably high temperatures, evidencing the good technological level of production. Moreover, the presence of samples characterized by mix-designs and mineralogical assemblages consistent with geological materials from Campania region witnesses the importation of ceramic materials from other sites, suggesting the existence of operating trades as already attested for other sites of Tyrrhenian coast.

The Via Lepanto site is one of the best examples showing how the Vesuvian region was partially reconstructed and earlier re-occupied after Vesuvius's eruption in the year 79 AD. The large amount of ceramic finds illustrates the typology in use in this area during the IV and V century AD. Analyses were focused on table and cooking ware productions. Archaeometric data were obtained using chemical and minero-petrographical methods (OM, XRD, XRF and SEM). Grain size measurements using Image Analyses on thin sections and a geochemical comparison with clayey deposits outcropping in the Campania region permitted the identification of the raw materials used for these pottery productions. XRD and SEM completed the data set, establishing the protocols used for pottery production in the Pompeii area during Late Roman period. The Via Lepanto site was part of an exchange network of markets with a periodic frequency, where locally produced and imported pottery was sold, indicating a flourishing network of exchanges spanning short, medium and long distances.

International audience; Samples of table and cooking ware, dating back to the Byzantine period of the ancient Greek colony of Cuma, were analysed by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy, in order to reconstruct the main technological properties of these manufactures. The comparison of minero-petrographical data from these samples with those of some kiln wastes allowed us to hypothesize a local manufacture for most of the investigated specimens and to confirm the relative reference groups. A restricted number of samples did not link with the main groups, indicating a regional (or maybe extra-regional) production, in agreement with the widespread circulation of this high-medieval ceramic production in southern Italy.