Search

The poster deals with the techniques and materials used for making inscriptions.&nbsp

Preliminary results on the ongoing non-invasive petrographic campaign in Sicily

Preliminary results on the ongoing petrographic campaign in Siracusa

Preliminary results on the material caracterization of signacula from Sicily

Additional file 1. Standardization of major (A) and minor/trace elements (B) by using 39 international mineral and rock standards (blue circles) and 11 internal ceramic standards (orange circles).

Additional file 1. Sections of the Sphinx Room: a) Vault, horizontal section b) East wall, A-A’ section, c) West wall, A’-A section, d) North wall, B-B’ section, e) South wall, C’-C section (See Figure 1 for reference). Credits: A. Blanco, D. Nepi, F. Vozzolo. Copyright: PArCo.

Additional file 2. Raking light detail images of a) the incisions used to set out the composition of the frame between the vault and the East wall, b) the brushstrokes visible on the temple on North wall.

In this work we report the results of the analysis of clay and sand raw materials collected from the Corfu island (Kanoni area, Ionian Sea). The mineralogical, petrographic and chemical data were compared with those of some archaic „Corinthian B" amphorae (late 6th – mid 5th c.BC) found in the archeological excavations at Gela (Sicily), and with those of local common wares and tiles from Sibari (ancient Sybaris/Thurii), in southern Italy. Indeed, the „Corinthian B" transport amphorae, largely diffused in the Mediterranean basin during archaic and classical periods, are supposed to come from several possible centers, including mainly Corfu and Sibari. The combination of both chemical and petrographic investigations strongly supports the archaeological hypothesis of the presence of Corfu products among the archaic „Corinthian B" amphorae from Gela.

In this short paper we present the results of a diagnostic study performed on building materials of the Adrano Castle in Sicily, part of a system of watchtowers extending around the Etna Mountain. Stone materials, plasters and mortars have been studied from macroscopic point of view to produce maps of the Castle façades. The results of this study provided a fundamental contribute to the reconstruction of architectural phases interesting the Castle and the definition of relative chronology based on microstratigraphic data, greatly supporting also the restoration works in selecting compatible replace materials.

In this work, a provenance and technological investigation on cooking-ware potteries from the ancient Greek -Roman town of Akrai (Palazzolo Acreide, Syracuse, Sicily) has proposed. A multi-methodological approach have been used to study the manufacture quality of analysed materials; in detail, petrographic, mineralogical, spectroscopic, chemical, porosimetric and micro-morphological analyses have been applied. The study provides fundamental contribute in archeological issues related to circulation in Sicily of cookingware productions during Late Roman Age; in fact, the obtained results allow to recognize in the site the presence of different well-known cooking-ware Roman productions, highlighting interesting questions about the technological and manufacture properties of this class of materials.

In this paper, petrographic, mineralogical and chemical analyses have been performed on plain table-ware fragments discovered in the ancient town of Akrai (modern Palazzolo Acreide, Syracuse, Sicily) and dated between the Hellenistic and the Late Roman periods (4th-5th/6thcentury A.D.). The project is developed in the context of the archeological debate on the cultural and political process occurred in Sicily since the 3rdcentury B.C. and known in archaeological literature as Romanization. In this framework, a gradually substitution of Greek-Hellenistic materials with the Roman ones has occurred in Sicilian colonies and the city of Akrai was deepened involved in this process. As the sensitiveness of material culture to cultural and social changes, the archaeometric investigation has been focused on provenance and technological manufacture aspects of tableware production, in order to delineate the eventually changes took place in the area during the investigated period. The comparison of obtained data with numerous references local groups of ceramics allows to identify different highly specialized local productions, drawing-back the commercial movements of potteries in Sicily during Roman Age.

So far unexplored, the introduction and the spread of the Roman thermal buildings in the prima provincia (Sicily) are widely debated in the current archeological studies. Mainly due to the lack of systematic excavations and intensively technological studies, the assessment of thermae in the Hellenistic-Roman Sicily has been thus far interpreted as a new social and architectural experience. However, a more careful archeological investigation would suggest a gradual transformation of the architectural landscape from the purely Greek bath tradition to the canonical thermae types. The aim of this paper is therefore to study the classical hot bath culture and, in particular, the transition from Greek to Roman architectural models (from βαλανeῖα to thermae) by applying an archaeometric approach on brick and tile samples from three Sicilian archaeological sites - Solunto, Taormina, Tindari - recently proved to be among the first towns in Sicily in which Roman thermae were established in the Early Empire. Petrographic, mineralogical (XRD), micromorphological (SEM) and geochemical (XRF) analyses has been performed on a selection of bath building remains (comprising suspensurae, tiles, bricks) to explore technology and production issues. The obtained results allowed to identify local productions and to distinguish them from imports, redrawing some aspects of the historical, economic, social and technological construction context of Roman Sicily.