The painting of the Etruscan “Tomba della Quadriga Infernale” (4th century BC), in Sarteano (Siena, Italy): technical features

This work presents the results of an investigation of the painting technique used in the Etruscan tomb “Tomba della Quadriga Infernale”. This tomb was discovered in Sarteano (Siena, Italy) in October 2003 and dated back to the second half of the 4th century BC. Red, dark red, pink, yellow, white, black, and grey colours were used in the tomb in order to create paintings, which now represent a very precious record of the Etruscan art of wall painting in a hypogeal environment. The technical features of the painting were revealed by stratigraphy using optical and electronic microscopy. The components and preparatory layers of the painted areas were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (SEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). XRD, SEM-EDS, and optical microscopic techniques were also used for mineralogical analysis of the rock substrate. The SEM-EDS and FTIR analyses showed that red and yellow ochre, calcite, and vegetable charcoal were used to paint the walls of the tomb: the pigments, either alone or mixed together, were utilized to produce pure colours (red, yellow, white, and black) and intermediate tonalities (pink, dark red, and grey). SEM-EDS, FTIR, and XRD highlighted that the painting was made on a preparatory layer of calcite, applied onto a levelling material made up of calcite, clay minerals, quartz, and iron oxides. GC/MS analyses revealed that egg was used as an organic binder to disperse the pigments.     

Multitemporal analysis for preservation of obsidian sources from Melka Kunture (Ethiopia): integration of fieldwork activities,digital aerial photogrammetry and multispectral stereo-IKONOS II analysis

An integrated analysis of recent satellite imageries and dated aerial photos demonstrated to be a good investigation tool (Gallo et al., 2009) for the identification of new sites and for the assessment of landscape changes of wide archaeological areas in Ethiopia.     

Interpreting the expansion of sea fishing in medieval Europe using stable isotope analysis of archaeological cod bones

Archaeological fish bones reveal increases in marine fish utilisation in Northern and Western Europe beginning in the 10th and 11th centuries AD. We use stable isotope signatures from 300 archaeological cod (Gadus morhua) bones to determine whether this sea fishing revolution resulted from increased local fishing or the introduction of preserved fish transported from distant waters such as Arctic Norway, Iceland and/or the Northern Isles of Scotland (Orkney and Shetland). Results from 12 settlements in England and Flanders (Belgium) indicate that catches were initially local. Between the 9th and 12th centuries most bones represented fish from the southern North Sea. Conversely, by the 13th to 14th centuries demand was increasingly met through long distance transport – signalling the onset of the globalisation of commercial fisheries and suggesting that cities such as London quickly outgrew the capacity of local fish supplies.     

Age and the palaeoenvironment of the West Ukrainian palaeolithic: the case of Velykyi Glybochok multi-cultural site

The Velykyi Glybochok Palaeolithic site near Ternopil town (Podolia Upland) contains a set of cultural layers in a sequence of loess and fossil soils. Beside the archaeological study of stone assemblages, the profile was investigated using lithological, palaeopedological and geochemical methods, including stable carbon and oxygen isotopes composition of pedogenic carbonates, soils micromorphology and TL dating. Remnants of vertebrates' bones and mollusc shells were also distinguished. The oldest cultural layer III documented the presence of Palaeolithic people during the Penultimate Interglacial represented by fossil soil – cambisol in type, developed under dense vegetation cover. The cultural layer III B is connected with initial cambisol originated in a short period of open landscape vegetation with shrubs development, dated to the climatic amelioration during the time of Penultimate Glaciation. The Last Interglacial is represented by luvisol formation with two stages of illuviation, which shows forest type of vegetation. Materials of the cultural layer III A were dispersed in the soil irregularly and mixed with artifacts of cultural layer II. Artifacts of III, III A and III B cultural layers represent the Middle Palaeolithic “Dniesterian Mousterian culture with Levalloisian technique”. These of assemblage II represent the Upper Palaeolithic. Inside the recent soil at the top of the sequence, the Mesolithic cultural layer I is present. Velykyi Glybochok is the only multilayer site in Podolia with detailed information about geological position of particular cultural layers.     

Minero-petrographic characterization of fine ware from Cales (South Italy)

79 samples of black glazed pottery, Terra sigillata, fine common ware, and production indicators were recovered in the archaeological site of Cales and investigated via a multi-analytical program (polarized light microscopy, thermal analyses, XRPD, XRF, FESEM, FESEM-EDS). Among the materials, finds of important production indicators, represented by welded pieces of black glazed pottery and spacers, attest a local production. Polarized light microscopy shows that the inclusions consist of feldspar, quartz, mica, calcite, and lithic fragments of both volcanic and sedimentary nature. Additional information about the mineralogical assemblage comes from the XRPD that revealed the presence of neoformed Ca-silicates, indicating equivalent firing temperatures ranging from 750 to 1050°C. All the samples show a Ca-rich character and an extreme compositional homogeneity, including the production indicators. The comparison with some Ca-rich Campanian clay raw materials shows a greater affinity with the Mio-Pliocene marine clay sediments of the Apennine sector, which include local clays. This allowed us to formulate the first hypotheses about clay sources used to produce fine pottery during the third century BCE to the early imperial period in Cales.     

Tracing the source of Late Neolithic Spondylus shell ornaments by stable isotope geochemistry and cathodoluminescence microscopy

Determination of the source of Spondylus objects is essential for the interpretation of Late Neolithic exchange systems and the social role of shell ornaments. We performed stable isotope analysis combined with cathodoluminescence microscopy study on ornaments (beads, bracelets) made of Spondylus shells excavated at the Aszód-Papi földek archaeological site in Hungary, to define their origin. For comparison Spondylus finds from Neolithic sites of Greece, modern Spondylus shells from the Aegean and the Adriatic, as well as fossil Spondylus and Ostrea shells from the Carpathian Basin were also examined. Oxygen isotope composition of Spondylus finds from Aszód ranges between ?1.9 and 2.1‰ and overlaps with the oxygen isotope range of shell objects from other Neolithic sites. Modern Spondylus shells from the Aegean and the Adriatic show overlapping δ¹⁸O values with one another and with the Neolithic objects; while recent shells of the Black Sea clearly are separate isotopically from the Mediterranean ones and most of archaeological artefacts. Spondylus shells from the Aszód site have Mediterranean origin; their source can be the Aegean or the Adriatic. Based on a former strontium isotope study the use of fossil Spondylus shells is excluded as raw material used for ornaments, however, in recent years the use of fossil shells was reintroduced. The shell ornaments from Aszód-Papi földek and the fossil oyster shells collected from the Carpathian Basin exhibit some overlapping oxygen isotope values; however, cathodoluminescence microscopy indicates that the Spondylus objects retained their original aragonite material. Diagenetic calcite, which occurs typically in the fossil shells, was not detected in the ornaments suggesting that the studied objects were made of recent shells. Calcitic parts observed in some Spondylus objects are not related to fossilisation.     

Make-believe: fashion and Cinelandia in Rizzoli's Lei (1933–38)

Amidst the wide array of women's magazines published in Italy in the 1930s, Lei. Rivista di vita femminile presents a compelling case study of the make-believe effect achieved through fashion and the allure of the silver screen. Published by Angelo Rizzoli between 1933 and 1938, Lei stands out for a cosmopolitan, American-looking lifestyle that champions an Italian ‘new woman’, aware of her own new image and enmeshed in a fantastic world of romantic novels and movie stars. This essay studies the paradoxes and complexities of an Italian illustrated periodical promoting the image of a fashionable woman in the midst of growing imperialism and autarchy, and publishing the work of Leica photographers, Lucio Ridenti and Paul Wolff in particular. Lei reflects the fundamental ambivalence of this time, promoting Italian fashion through Hollywood as a way to counteract the French fashion industry, and inviting women to role-play through the allure of their image.