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Archaeometric constraints by multidisciplinary study of Richborough 527 amphorae and yellow clays from the C.da Portinenti pottery workshop (Lipari Island, Italy)

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Abstract

During the archeological excavations carried out from 1993 to 1995 at C.da Portinenti, at Lipari Island, a pottery workshop dated to Roman age—including a kiln dump containing both Richborough 527 type amphora wastes and ceramic shreds—was discovered. The Richborough 527 amphorae had been used to transport local volcanic and hydrothermal products throughout the Roman Empire. Here, we present the results of a multidisciplinary archaeometric study carried out with the aim to shed light on the provenance of the raw materials used in the production of the Richborough 527 amphorae. To achieve this goal, amphora wastes and a sample of yellow clays stored in the archeological excavation area have been analyzed, and the data were compared to those available for clays coming from Lipari and from the Messina Province. The overall results indicate that (i) a volcanic sand from Portinenti Valley was used as temper in the ceramic mixture; (ii) the geochemical features and the fossils present in the ceramic paste are compatible with marine Pleistocene clayey deposits of the Messina Province and incompatible with the clays of Lipari island; (iii) the yellow clays found in the excavation area were not used to produce the Richborough 527; and (iv) the analyzed wastes are the results of a poorly controlled firing temperature during the ceramic artifact production.

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Acknowledgments

We thank two anonymous referees for the careful reading of the manuscript and their constructive comments, which improved the quality of the paper. G. Bueti and S. Larinà are thanked for their contribution to this research project, given during their degree work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sez. Palermo, Via Ugo La Malfa, 153, 90146, Palermo, Italy

    Marcella Di Bella, Francesco Italiano & Davide Romano

  2. Polo Regionale delle Isole Eolie, Parco, Museo Archeologico “L. Bernabò Brea”, Lipari, Italy

    Maria Amalia Mastelloni

  3. Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia, Università di Perugia, Via A. Pascoli s.n.c., 06123, Perugia, Italy

    Angela Baldanza

  4. Dipartimento di Scienze Matematiche e Informatiche, Scienze Fisiche e Scienze della Terra, Università di Messina, Viale F. Stagno d’Alcontres 31, 98166, Messina, Italy

    Simona Quartieri, Alessandro Tripodo, Fabio Leonetti & Giuseppe Sabatino

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  1. Marcella Di Bella
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  2. Maria Amalia Mastelloni
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  3. Angela Baldanza
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  5. Francesco Italiano
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  9. Giuseppe Sabatino
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Correspondence to Giuseppe Sabatino.

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Fig. S1

XRPD patterns of the analyzed clay samples: A) Clay-Port and Clay-Fuardo; B) Clay-Messina (PNG 183 kb)

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Fig. S2

Distribution of Quaternary marine marly-clays deposits (Pleistocenic Clay Complex) outcropping along the north-eastern coast of Sicily, identified as possible supply area of raw materials used for the production of Richborough 527 amphorae (PNG 1155 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 414 kb)

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Di Bella, M., Mastelloni, M.A., Baldanza, A. et al. Archaeometric constraints by multidisciplinary study of Richborough 527 amphorae and yellow clays from the C.da Portinenti pottery workshop (Lipari Island, Italy). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 11, 2957–2970 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0727-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0727-2

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