Roman ceramic pieces from central Spain: Visual, textural, chemical, mineralogical and statistical analysis

Part of : Mediterranean archaeology & archaeometry : international journal ; Vol.16, No.1, 2016, pages 237-248

Issue:
Pages:
237-248
Author:
Abstract:
A complete visual, mineralogical, textural, chemical and statistical study is presented of thirty ceramic specimens recovered from various Roman archaeological sites in central Spain (Ávila). Therefore, the novelty of this work is that we report the first complete study of pottery fragments in the Ávila region (Castile and Leon, Spain) dating back to the Roman Empire. Potential/local raw materials were characterised, in order to classify ancient pottery samples by origin. The presence of firing minerals in the ancient ceramic samples was studied, to investigate the technology used in their manufacture. Another innovation of this article is that the statistical study has established links between ceramic samples, shedding further light on knowledge of manufacturing techniques in this region during the Roman Empire. Similar materials were identified in most of the ceramic pieces from the archaeological sites, all present in the local geological environment, which underlines their autochthonous origin. The raw materials were initially chosen on the basis of the final use of the sample (typology of the samples: Terra sigillata hispanica, common pottery and tegulae). The samples were manufactured within three different temperature ranges (temperature > 900C°, between 900 – 800°C and between 800– 600°C) and under three different redox environments (oxidizing, reduction and irregular conditions). Non-plastic inclusions were added, intentionally or otherwise, to the initial clay, depending on the final typology of the sample
Subject:
Subject (LC):
Keywords:
Archaeometry, Centre of Spain, Chemical analysis, Mineralogical analysis, Roman ceramics
Notes:
Περιέχει 7 εικόνες και 4 πίνακες
References (1):
  1. Ariño, E., Modelos de poblamiento rural en la provincia de Salamanca (España) entre la Antigüedad y la Alta Edad Media (2006) Zephyrus, 59, pp. 317-337; Barone, G., Mazzoleni, P., Spagnolo, G., Aquilia, E., The transport amphorae of Gela: A multidisciplinary study on provenance and technological aspects (2012) Journal of Archaeological Science, 39, pp. 11-22; Barone, G., Mazzoleni, P., Aquilia, E., Barbera, G., The Hellenistic and Roman Syracuse (Sicily) fine pottery production explored by chemical and petrographic analysis (2014) Archaeometry, 56, pp. 70-87; Barrios Neira, J., Montealegre, L., López, L.A., Romero, L., Ceramics of Ategua (Córdoba, Spain): Mineralogical and petrographic study (2009) Applied Clay Science, 42, pp. 529-537; Baxter, M.J., Standardization and Transformation in Principal Component Analysis, with Applications to Archaeometry (1995) Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series C (Applied Statistics), 44 (4), pp. 513-527; Blanco, A., Tendencias del uso del suelo en el valle Amblés (Ávila, España). De la Edad del Hierro al Medievo (2009) Zephyrus, 63, pp. 155-183; Brindley, G.W., Brown, G., (1984) Crystal Structures of Clay Minerals and Their X-Ray Identification. Mine-ralogical Society Monograph, London; Butzer, K.W., (1989) Arqueologia. Una ecología del hombre: Método y teoría para un enfoque contextual. Bellaterra, Barcelona; Carmona, E., Palmero, S., Arnaiz, M.A., Análisis químico de cerâmicas calcolíticas de la Cuenca Media del Arlanzón (Burgos): Un medio para la valoración de la procedencia y el intercambio (2014) Bole-tín de la Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio, 53 (2), pp. 81-92; Cultrone, G., Rodriguez-Navarro, C., Sebastian, E., Cazalla, O., De la Torre, M.J., Carbonate and silicate phase reactions during ceramic firing (2001) European Journal of Mineralogy, 13, pp. 621-634; De Soto, M.R., (2010) Prospección arqueológica extensiva en el Valle del Río Almar (Salamanca). Estructuras de poblamiento de la II Edad del Hierro, Época Romana y Alta Edad Media, , Master dissertation, Department of Prehistory, Ancien History and Archaeology, University of Salamanca; Dias, M.I., Prudencio, M.I., On the importance of using scandium to normalize geochemical data preceding multivariate analyses applied to archaeometric pottery studies (2008) Microchemical Journal, 88, pp. 136-141; Eiland, M.L., Williams, Q., Investigation of Islamic Ceramics from Tell Tuneinir Using X-Ray Diffraction (2001) Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 8 (6), pp. 875-903; Feliu, M.J., Edreira, M.C., Martín, J., Application of physical-chemical analytical techniques in the study of ancient ceramics (2004) Analytica Chimica Acta, 502, pp. 241-250; Finlay, A.J., McComish, J.M., Ottley, C.J., Bates, C.R., Selby, D., Trace element fingerprinting of ceramic building material from Carpow and York Roman fortresses manufactured by the VI Legion (2012) Journal of Archaeological Science, 39, pp. 2385-2391; García Giménez, R., Vigil de la Villa, R., Recio de la Rosa, P., Petit Dominguez, M.D., Rucandio, M.I., Analytical and multivariate study of Roman age architectural terracotta from Northeast of Spain (2005) Talanta, 65, pp. 861-868; García Heras, M., Olaetxea, P., Métodos y análisis para la caracterización de cerámicas arqueológi-cas. Estado actual de la investigación en España (1992) Archivo Español de Arqueología, 65, pp. 263-289; Gallart, M.D., Mata, M.P., Análisis mineralógico de las cerámicas (2005) Bolskan, 12, pp. 171-180; Hein, A., Kilikoglou, V., Kassianidou, V., Chemical and mineralogical examination of metallurgical ceramics from a Late Bronze Age copper smelting site in Cyprus (2007) Journal of Archaeological Science, 34 (1), pp. 141-154; Hernando, M.R., (2005) Epigrafía romana de Ávila. Ausonius Éditions-Archivo Epigráfico de Hispania, Bor-deaux-Madrid; Iordanidis, A., Garcia-Guinea, J., Karamitrou-Mentessidi, G., Analytical study of ancient pottery from the archaeological site of Aiani, northern Greece (2009) Materials characterization, 60, pp. 292-302; Islam, A.K.M.E., Lotse, E.G., Quantitative Mineralogical Analysis of Some Bangladesh Soil with X-Ray, Iron Exchange and Selective Dissolution Techniques (1986) Clay Minerals, 21, pp. 31-42; Marengo, E., Aceto, M., Robotti, E., Liparota, M.C., Bobba, M., Pantó, G., Archaeometric characterisation of ancient pottery belonging to the archaeological site of Novalesa Abbey (Piedmont, Italy) by ICP-MS and spectroscopic techniques coupled to multivariate statistical tools (2005) Analytica Chimica Acta, 537, pp. 359-375; Maritain, L., Nodari, L., Mazzoli, C., Milano, A., Russo, U., Influence of firing conditions on ceramic products: Experimental study on clay rich in organic matter (2006) Applied Clay Science, 31, pp. 1-15; Munsell, A.H., (1975) Munsell Soil Color Chart. Macbeth division of Kollmorgen Corporation, Baltimore; Orton, C., Tyers, P., Vince, A., (1997) La cerámica en Arqueología. Crítica, Barcelona; Palanivel, R., Kumar, U., The mineralogical and fabric analysis of ancient pottery artifacts (2011) Cerâmica, 57, pp. 56-62; Pérez Arantegui, J., Aguaroto, O., Lapuente Mercadal, M.P., Feliz Ortega, M.J., Pernot, M., (1996) Ar-queometría y caracterización de materiales arqueológicos. Cuadernos del Instituto Aragonés de Arqueología, Teruel; Ramos, M.L., Vigil de la Villa, R., García Giménez, R., Empleo de la Técnica de Difracción de Ra-yos X, en el estudio de Terracotas Aquitectónicas Romanas de Ampurias y Tarraco (1990) CuPAUAM, 17, pp. 121-136; Ravisankar, R., Kiruba, S., Naseerutheen, A., Chandrasekaran, A., Raja Annamalai, G., Seran, M., Balaji, P.D., Estimation of the firing temperature of archaeological pottery excavated from Thiruverkadu, Tamilnadu, India by FT-IR spectroscopy (2011) Archives of Physics Research, 2 (4), pp. 108-114; Riccardi, M.P., Messiga, B., Duminuco, P., An approach to the dynamics of clay firing (1999) Applied Clay Science, 15, pp. 393-409; Rodríguez, E., (2003) Ávila romana. Notas para la arqueología, la topografía y la epigrafía romanas de la ciudad y su territorio. Caja General de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Ávila, Ávila; Santacreu, D.A., Vicens, M., Raw Materials and Pottery Production at the Late Bronze and Iron Age Site of Puig de Sa Morisca, Mallorca, Spain (2012) Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 27, pp. 285-299; Sociedad Geológica de España e Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, (2004) Geología de España. IGME, Madrid; Schultz, L., (1964) Quantitative Interpretation of Mineralogical Composition from X-Ray and Chemical Data for Pierce Shale. U.S. Geological Survey professional paper, Washington; Segvic, B., Seselj, L., Slovenec, L., Lugovi, B., Mahlmann, R.F., Composition, Technology of Manufacture, and Circulation of Hellenistic Pottery from the Eastern Adriatic: A Case Study of Three Archaeological Sites along the Dalmatian Coast, Croatia (2012) Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 27, pp. 63-87; Sparato, M., A comparison of chemical and petrographic analyses of Neolithic pottery from Southeastern Europe (2011) Journal of Archaeological Science, 38, pp. 255-269; Vigil de la Villa, R., García Giménez, R., Cuevas, J., Bernal, D., An assay on simulation of the late Roman amphoric ceramic raw materials (1998) Thermochimica Acta, 322, pp. 9-16; Vigil de la Villa, R., García Giménez, R., Cerámica y su caracterización (2005) La Ciencia y el Arte: Cien-cias experimentales y conservación del patrimonio histórico. S. Prous, (ed.), Ministerio de Cultura, Sub-dirección General de Publicaciones, Información y Documentación, Madrid; Waksman, S.Y., Morozova, Y., Zelenko, S., Colak, M., Archaeological and archeometric investigations of the amphore cargo of a Late Roman shipwreck sunk near the cape of plaka (Crimea, Ukraine) (2014) Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean: Archaeology an archaeometry. The Mediterranean: A market without froniers, N. Poulou-Papadimitriou, E. Nodarou, and V. Kilikoglou, (eds.), Archaeopress, Oxford; Williams, D.F., An integrated archaeometric approach to ceramic fabric recognition. A study case on Late Roman amphora 1 from the Eastern Mediterranean (2005) Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking wares and amphorae in the Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, , J. M. Gurt, J. Buxeda and M.A. Cau, (eds.), BAR International Series, Oxford