Archeometry

La Serena region is a large plateau with open landscapes bounded in the south by a mountain chain formed by the Benquerencia, Tiros and La Rinconada Sierras. There are more than 300 painted and engraved sites in the region. Cueva Grande, Cueva de En medio and Cueva Peque~ na are three Schematic rock art shelters located in the municipality of Benquerencia de la Serena, Badajoz, Spain. Over their panels have been documented more than a hundred of painted schematic figures (anthropomorphic figures, eye-shape figures and symbols) (Neolithic-Copper Age). Paintings are monochromatic with red or black coloration. A total of 13 samples (10 red and 3 black samples) from different panels were collected and analyzed using micro-Raman spectroscopy and ATR-FTIR. Micro-Raman spectroscopy was able to characterize the main mineral component, respectively hematite for the red figures and charcoal for the black paintings. ATR-FTIR was useful to possible ochre and possible organic identification. These latest results are particularly important for understanding manufacturing processes and addressing conservation problems.

Solid state electrochemistry based on the voltammetry of immobilized microparticles (VIMP) methodology is applied to a series of 80 Phoenician Red Slip samples from the archaeological sites of Motya (Sicily, Italy), Mogador (Morocco), Ramat‐Rahel (Israel), Sulky (Sardinia, Italy), Tas Silg (Malta), Pantelleria (Italy), and Cádiz (Spain), dated from the 8th to the 6th century BC. Upon attachment of sub‐microsamples to graphite electrodes in contact with aqueous H2SO4 electrolyte, voltammetric features due to the reduction of Fe(III) minerals and the oxidation of Fe(II) ones, complemented with electrocatalytic effects on oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions, provide characteristic electrochemical fingerprints for pottery samples. A consistent sample grouping discriminating between different potteries from different archaelogical sites, is obtained, all results being consistent with morphological, compositional and mineralogical data. Petrographic analysis supports the grouping, defining the manufacture and firing procedure for the different archaeological context.

The 7th International Conference on Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean: Archaeology and Archaeometry (LRCW 7) will be held in València, Riba-roja de Túria and Alacant (15-19 October 2019). The conference will be organized by the Municipality of València (Secció d’Investigació Arqueològica Municipal de València), the Municipality of Riba-roja de Túria (III Jornades d’Arqueologia de Riba-roja), the Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica (ICAC), and the Equip de Recerca Arqueològica i Arqueomètrica de la Universitat de Barcelona (ERAAUB), in collaboration with the Museu d’Arqueologia (MARQ) of Alacant, the Museu de Prehistòria of València, and the Universitat de Teologia of València.

A total of 13 thresholds composed of one or more blocks of 'alabaster' survive in situ at Villa A at Oplontis. They decorate the elegantly Second-Style painted rooms, such as atrium (5), triclinium (14), salone (15) and cubiculum (11), as well as (surprisingly) some service areas. The thresholds, which belong to Villa A’s original phase of construction in the middle of the first century BC, arguably represent the most spectacular example of 'alabaster' use to survive from the villas and houses preserved by the eruption on Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79. Visual characteristics – dark beige to light gray with wavy patches and no banding, coarse to very coarse compact crystalline calcite - suggest that the source of the 'alabaster' could be either in Italy (close visual characteristics are with the  'alabasters' from Iano di Montaione, being most likely, or Quercetoin Tuscany; Camerino or Iesi in the Marche region; Collepardoin Latium) or Egypt (W.Samnur, El-Qawatir? Fayum’svarieties of alabasterine gypsum?). Due to the difficulty of positive identification via visual analysis a total 7 samples from 6 thresholds have been subjected to analysis with the aim of determining the source of the stone; but we also seek to determine if more than one variety had been put together to compose the thresholds, particularly in the case of the thresholds of rooms 13/14 and 23/24.

The poster presents the results of a minero-petrographic and isotopic study – minero-petrographical (by XRD and OM on thin section) and geochemical (Sr isotopes by mass spectrometry, and chemical quantitative analysis by XRF) conducted by LAMA (Laboratorio di Analisi dei Materiali Antichi) and the Institut für Geologie at the Universität Bern – carried out on the ‘alabaster’ thresholds of Villa A, Oplontis. Sr isotope analyses are under way; their comparison with the Castelnuovo quarry (87Sr/86Sr = 0.70798 ± 0.00003) and the Thyatira quarry (87Sr/86Sr = 0.7081-0.7091) will be presented. The results should provide further data regarding the potential sources and uses of this ornamental stone during Antiquity.