The colour of the facades in Siena’s historical centre: I. Glazings (calcium oxalate films s.s.) and other finishes on the stone materials of the Cathedral’s main facade

This paper focuses on the long-debated topic of the so-called calcium oxalate films: their origin and meaning but also their age and original appearance. The restoration of the main facade of the Siena Cathedral provided a unique opportunity to this end, thanks to the possibility of an extensive and detailed sampling and (as rarely happens) a sufficiently accurate historical knowledge of the construction vicissitudes. This work, mainly based on a polarising microscopy study (coupled with X-ray diffraction and SEM-EDS analyses) of over a thousand thin and ultra-thin sections of 400 microsamples, demonstrates that the current relicts of films are the result of alteration and decay of ancient treatments. In most cases, these were linseed oil-based glazings (the use of this substance is confirmed by historical documents) and pigments. Their role was essentially aesthetic; their use dates the beginning of the fourteenth century and continued at least until the eighteenth century.

Small angle neutron scattering study of ancient pottery from Syracuse (Sicily,Southern Italy)

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.     

The Role of Territorial Capital in Local Economic Growth: Evidence from Italy

Territorial capital is defined as the system of territorial assets of economic, cultural, social and environmental nature that ensures the development potential of places. The potential of this concept resides in the recognition of possible interactions between factors of different nature. So far, however, very few studies have focused on the empirical verification of the links between territorial capital and economic growth. This work is devoted to the analysis of the relationship between economic growth and territorial capital in Italian NUTS3 regions between 1999 and 2008. The distribution of territorial assets across regions points out the huge gap between Italian macro-areas. These divergences do not clearly reproduce the differentials in GDP growth. The second part of the analysis is focused on the joint effect of the territorial capital components on the regional economic performance. Our findings emphasize the role of some endogenous factors in explaining the differentiation of regional growth patterns. Moreover, they point out the importance of soft assets in correspondence of an external shock, as the one represented by the recent financial crisis.     

Integrating radar and laser-based remote sensing techniques for monitoring structural deformation of archaeological monuments

Ground-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (GBInSAR) and Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) were purposely integrated to obtain 3D interferometric radar point clouds to facilitate the spatial interpretation of displacements affecting archaeological monuments. The paper describes the procedure to implement this integrated approach in the real-world situations of surveillance of archaeological and built heritage. Targeted tests were carried out on the case study of the Domus Tiberiana sited along the northern side of the Palatino Hill in the central archaeological area of Rome, Italy, and displacements of the monument were monitored over almost one year of acquisition. The GBInSAR – TLS integration provided updated information about the condition of the archaeological structures in relation to their history of instability mechanisms, and did not highlighted a general worsening for the stability of the entire monument. Point-wise and prompt detection of displacement anomalies and/or sudden changes in displacement trends proved the suitability of the method to support early warning procedures, also to evaluate effects on the masonry due to human activities.     

Exploring Nonlinear Spatial Dependence in the Tails

In many instances it is of interest to measure the degree of similarity between neighboring regions. Spatial autocorrelation measures are the most popular means of doing it. However, such measures only capture a global linear relationship between regions, whereas in many circumstances a more general instrument is required. For instance, in economic poverty analysis or environmental applications (and in other cases where we are interested in extreme events and threshold exceedances) we should be more interested in the spatial pattern in the tails of the joint distributions. In this article we introduce some exploratory tool that focuses on the bivariate joint tails behavior to detect a pattern of spatial regularities. The method will be illustrated with reference to simulated environmental data.     

Geophysical investigation of the Temple of Apollo (Hierapolis,Turkey)

The ruins of Hierapolis are located a few kilometres North of Laodicea in the Lycus Valley (western Turkey). This area is characterised by a large geothermic field that produces several hot water springs along tectonic structures (fractures and faults).     

Protocol for lapis lazuli provenance determination: evidence for an Afghan origin of the stones used for ancient carved artefacts kept at the Egyptian Museum of Florence (Italy)

Despite that the Badakhshan Province (Afghanistan) remains the most plausible hypothesis for the lapis lazuli used in antiquity, alternatives proposed in literature are worth to study to confirm or disprove their historical reliability. In this work, a protocol for determining the provenance of lapis lazuli rocks used for carved artefacts is described. Markers for the univocal attribution of the raw material to a source were identified analysing 45 rocks of known provenance (among which 15 georeferenced) from 4 quarry districts. To the best of our knowledge, this reference database is the widest in provenance studies on lapis lazuli. All the markers are recognisable by means of Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) techniques, in particular micro-proton-induced x-ray emission (PIXE) and micro-ionoluminescence (IL). These techniques are non-invasive and applicable in air, allowing to analyse artworks and rocks of practically any shape and dimension without sample preparation.The protocol was applied to determine the provenance of raw material used for carved lapis lazuli artefacts kept at the Egyptian Museum of Florence, the second most important Egyptian museum in Italy, second only to the museum of Turin. The collection in Florence has a great historical value and includes several lapis lazuli pendants, scarabs, small statuettes and amulets ascribable mainly to the first millennium BC. Following the protocol, 11 of these artefacts were analysed by means of IBA techniques. Results ascribe the raw material to the Afghan quarry district.