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One of the earliest known settlements of Pre-Roman Padua, Veneto Region (north-eastern Italy) was located in the very centre of the present-day city. The archaeological excavations revealed structures related to craft activities (metallurgical and pottery workshops) and residential areas datable from the late 9th to the 1st century BCE. A large pyrotechnic structure formed by an earthen block densely filled and covered by broken ceramic vessels was found, bringing to light the earliest foundry of the Pre-Roman Padua known to date. Many potsherds found in the site correspond to a regional ceramic class that included coarse and fine wares mainly composed of very dark ceramic bodies. A multi-analytical study based on macroscopic and petrographic descriptions as well as mineralogical, geochemical and microstructural analyses, was carried out in order to state the technological choices adopted for producing these dark vessels and the provenance of the raw materials. A poorly manufacturing was adopted to produce the common pottery, resulting coarse wares uneven textured, while the fine wares were produced by adopting the purification of the base clays and/or the tempering of the clay pastes. Common geo-resources were used, consisting in illitic-chloritic clays rich in quartz and feldspars, the firing regime conditions covered a range of maximum temperatures (normally under 850 °C) and the temper was constituted by silicate (chiefly quartzite, rhyolite and trachyte rock fragments) and/or carbonate (calcite and/or dolomite) inclusions, that were added after having been grounded and/or sieved. The specific mineral and lithic markers of provenance identified in the sherds confirmed the correspondence of this pottery with a local production. However, the specific technological choices that were carried out must be taking into consideration, since the purification removed the larger grains originally present in the base clays and the tempering influenced the chemical composition of the sherds. The different degree of purification of the base clays and the differential tempering procedures that were accomplished point out the adoption of very specific recipes to produce the fine wares, suggesting the correspondence of this local ceramic class with diverse sub-productions and the high level of specialization achieved by the potters in southern Veneto during the Early Iron Age. • Dark sherds from the earliest foundry of Pre-Roman Padua known to date are studied. • Fine wares were carefully produced by adopting very specific technological choices. • Markers of provenance allow to attest this dark pottery with a local production. • The purification and the tempering procedures must be considered in provenance studies. • The potters of southern Veneto achieved a high level of specialization at that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty five ceramic shards discovered in archaeological excavations at Castellum 22 site, Constanţa County, southeastern Romania, and dated to the 10th–11th centuries AD, were subjected to scientific investigations in order to get clues about the raw materials and manufacturing techniques employed by the potters from the Lower Danube zone at the end of the 1st millennium AD. The analyzed shards were selected according to archaeological criteria. The characteristics of the fabric, such as texture, porosity and microstructure, as well as the surface treatments and firing conditions, were studied using Optical Microscopy (OM). Chemical composition was determined using Particle-Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) technique at AN2000 accelerator of LNL, INFN, Italy. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the PIXE data for the ceramic bodies highlighted two main groups of shards with distinct compositional signatures. Micro-PIXE maps of the interfaces between the olive green or yellow glaze and the underlying ceramic body indicated that the decorative layers are strongly enriched in lead. The results of these investigations were compared to the ones previously obtained on coeval pottery from other archaeological sites, such as Hârşova , Oltina, Păcuiul lui Soare , and Valu lui Traian , in a trial to get some insights about the life and customs of the people from the Lower Danube region during the Byzantine period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Middle Neolithic (between 5000 and 4500 cal. BCE) the Serra d'Alto Culture was particularly widespread in Matera's territory and in Apulia region. Serra d'Alto pottery wares consist both of a very fine yellow paste—called figuline —decorated with patterns in black, and of a medium/coarse paste. In this paper, the X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyses of 102 samples of black painted decorated figuline pottery are reported. We analyzed sherds from six archaeological sites of Matera's area: Serra d'Alto, Trasano, Setteponti, Tirlecchia and Pipistrelli's cave, and Funeraria cave. The results show that a black pigment based on manganese has been used for the decoration of each of the Serra d'Alto samples. The exclusive presence of this material suggests a deliberate technological choice and defines a regular characteristic of Serra d'Alto pottery manufacturing. This study is part of an interdisciplinary project on painted pottery in the central and southern Italy, from Early to the Middle Neolithic period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for a quantitative approach to the morphologic study of ceramics is becoming increasingly evident. Ceramics are the most common material in many archaeological sites and a huge amount of data has accumulated over time. This data can be handled by Machine Learning algorithms which are rapidly gaining popularity in archaeology. Although most approaches can be referred to classification tasks, in this contribution a particular type of Neural Network is proposed for feature extraction from archaeological ceramics. Through this proposed method it is possible to gain a numerical weighted representation of the pottery profile that can be used for multivariate analyses. The case study will focus on regionalisation processes in pottery production between the end of the 2nd millennium BC and the first half of the 1st millennium BC in central Tyrrhenian Italy, a period that saw major transformations in the cultural and socio-political structure of Ancient Italy. The results seem to confirm the regionalisation hypothesis and offer interesting insights into the quantitative study of archaeological ceramics. • A Variation Autoencoder is used to extract features from archaeological ceramic profiles drawings. • Dataset including near 5000 pottery profiles from Final Bronze Age to Orientalizing period in Central Italy. • Multivariate analysis, such as Dimensionality reduction methods, can be used on pottery profiles. • Regionalisation processes in pottery production are confirmed by the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper is focused on a spectroscopic study of some pottery shards from an archaeological site in Syracuse (Sicily, Southern Italy), dating back to the Hellenistic–Roman period. Structural characterization was performed at different scales of observation, i.e. from macroscopic to mesoscopic. The main goal was to point out the potentiality of the small angle neutron scattering (SANS) technique as a non-invasive analytical tool in archaeometry, also in conjunction with other, more usual, methodologies. Correlation of experimental data, i.e. macroscopic typology and texture, obtained from petrographic analysis, and radius of gyration and fractal dimension of the interfaces of the mesoscopic aggregates obtained using SANS, together with mineralogical X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, allowed hypotheses to be made on the production technology of the investigated samples. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This work is focused on the petro-archeometric characterization of the fine pottery production of the archaeological site of Gela (Sicily). Thirty-five samples coming from three Archaic and Hellenistic kilns and five coming from an Hellenistic house, were investigated by means of optical microscopy, XRD and XRF analysis. With the exception of some ceramics which are undoubtedly imported, all the samples have similar petrographic features, but on the basis of chemical composition, we can distinguish two different groups. The presence of two local productions is confirmed by the comparison with locally outcropping sediments and with archaic and modern bricks of sure Geloan production. This result is particularly significant for the definition of reference groups of this wealthy polis that played an important trading role in the Mediterranean area. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we focus on the archaeometric characterisation of some pottery remains dated to the 8th and early 7th centuries BC. The sherds examined come from excavations carried out by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) on the acropolis of Timpone della Motta, an archaeological site located in Francavilla Marittima, near the well-known Greek colony of Sybaris (Calabria, southern Italy). As the site was one of the most important sanctuaries in the area during the 8th century BC, pottery from the sanctuary is one of the main sources of evidence for cultural and technological transformations which occurred within the indigenous Oinotrian society. However, in order to evaluate the significance of the individual classes of pottery, their provenance needs to be better understood. A first step in this direction was to clarify which pottery classes were produced locally at Timpone della Motta. We focus here on three ceramic classes frequently found in the sanctuary: a) matt-painted pottery; b) Oinotrian-Euboean style; and c) colonial ware (hydriskoi), for further information on the probable provenance area and the technological features of these ceramic categories. A multi-analytical approach was used, including petrographic, mineralogical and chemical investigations by means of optical and scanning electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF). The results are compared with those deriving from minero-chemical and granulometric characterisation of some clay sediments sampled from outcrops near the study site, representing the potential source of clay used for ceramic production in this area. Preliminary data indicate that the matt-painted and Oinotrian-Euboean sherds were probably locally produced, since their chemical composition markedly resembles that of the clay sediments. As regards the hydriskoi, some chemical differences were observed with respect to local clays and the other two classes, perhaps indicating a different production centre for this type of pottery. However, local manufacture exploiting the Fe- and Mg-richer clay layers in the sampled outcrop cannot be excluded for this group. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Selected decorated Renaissance ceramic fragments, found during the excavation of a Sicilian archaeological site (Caltagirone, Sicily, South Italy), have been studied by combining scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS), and X-ray absorbance spectroscopy (XAS). The study was aimed at providing microchemical and microstructural characterization of the colored glazed coatings in order to elucidate the nature of the pigments in the decorative layers, and in the glaze itself. From the obtained results, the general perspective has been the identification of information to be used for a reliable recognition of the production techniques. In particular, XAS measurements, performed using synchrotron radiation (SR) as the source at the Cu K-edge, in the case of green decorations, provided structural information of the oxidation states and the local chemical environment of copper (neighboring atoms and bond distances). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present work is addressed to the investigation of pottery fragments, coming from the archaeological excavation in Milazzo and Messina (Sicily, Southern Italy), in order to get information about their manufacture. The stylistic features of the shards led to assign the samples to the “proto-majolica” ceramic class and to date them back to XII–XIII century A.D. A detailed spectroscopic analysis, performed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) absorbance, provided the identification of the mineralogical composition of the samples and the revealed differences induced to hypothesize the existence of several workshops in the same area. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This work is focused on a multidisciplinary study of 13 pottery fragments collected in the submerged archaeological site of Baia (Naples, Italy). Founded by the Romans in the 1st century B.C., this archaeological area represents one of the greatest evidences of Roman architecture and it includes ancient ruins whose structures range from maritime villas and imperial buildings. Several diagnostic tests were carried out in order to characterize the archaeological materials, their structure and properties, as well as the alteration and degradation products. Degradation forms in seawater imply not only a variation in the physico-mechanical and chemical properties of the material but also an aesthetic damage, due to superficial deposits, which can lead to the illegibility of the artefacts. In this context, it is crucial to determine to what extent these decay factors, mainly attributable to biological growth, could affect the durability of pottery and what are the effects of cleaning procedures. The work offers further elements to obtain new insights into the underwater cultural heritage field and in the function of ceramic matter, especially related to several applications in technology and in the adoption of strategies for suitable conservation procedures. Unlabelled Image • Multi-analytical study by microscopic techniques, XRD analysis, cleaning tests, colorimetric and ultrasound measurements • Characterization of archaeological materials, their structure, properties, alteration and degradation products • Final recognition of the extent of decay due to biological growth, affecting the durability of pottery • Evaluation of the effects of cleaning procedures • The data improve knowledge about preservation of ceramics from underwater and allow to set-up a protocol for their cleaning [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early consumption of wine or other grape derivatives (such as vinegar or must) is suggested from organic residues analysis conducted on Bronze Age pottery recovered from two sites in north-eastern Italy, Pilastri di Bondeno (Ferrara) and Canale Anfora (Aquileia, Udine). Pilastri is part of the Terramare culture of the Po plain, from which the archaeobotanical context has suggested that Vitis vinifera L. was known and used during the Middle Bronze Age. At Canale Anfora Vitis, macro-remains were found in earlier levels of the local stratigraphy. Organic residue analysis conducted by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry allowed the identification of tartaric acid in twenty samples out of thirty-one recovered from different ceramic vessels (e.g., drinking cups, coarse ware pots, presumed storage vessels) found at the two archaeological sites and dated to the 15th-14th centuries BC. Based on integrated studies, we suggest that grape juice derivatives (including wine or vinegar) were likely consumed at the sites. This is the earliest direct evidence of grape derivatives consumption in this area. Combined with the botanical evidence, these findings contribute to our understanding of the emergence of wine consumption in the western Mediterranean. • Tartaric acid is present in Bronze Age ceramics from northeastern Italy (c. 1500–1300 BCE). • We hypothesize that wine was consumed and possibly produced at the studied sites. • Traces of tartaric acid were detected in cups and vessels with different forms and capacities. • We hypothesize different ways of consumption and different uses of wine and its derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]