The Source Provenance of Bronze Age and Roman pottery from Cyprus

Archaeological interpretations of ancient economies have been strengthened by chemical analyses of ceramics, which provide the clearest evidence for economic activity, and comprise both the objects of exchange and its means. Pottery is often manufactured from local materials, but its compositional diversity typically prevents significant patterns of resource utilization from being identified. Centrally located and positioned on traditional shipping routes, Cyprus maintained ties with and supplied a variety of distinctive ceramic products to the major commercial centres in the eastern Mediterranean throughout Antiquity. We analysed two Cypriot .ne wares and a variety of utilitarian pottery, as well as samples of extant Cypriot clays to determine source provenance. These chemical analyses provide an objective indication of the origins of ancient (Bronze Age and Roman) ceramics manufactured on Cyprus. The distribution of the probable clay sources and the links between pottery style and the material environment also afford a perspective on the spatial organization of large‐scale pottery production on the island. Compositional analysis provides the means to assemble geographies of pottery production and to unravel the interregional system of exchange that operated in Antiquity, but the ability to accomplish these tasks is predicated on systematic analyses of ceramic products and raw materials that are found far beyond the bounds of individual archaeological sites.     

MULTIANALYTICAL STUDY OF PALAEOLITHIC REINDEER ANTLER. DISCOVERY OF ANTLER TRACES IN LASCAUX PIGMENTS BY TEM*

Palaeolithic and modern reindeer antler were analysed using complementary techniques to evaluate the conservation state of bone material. X‐ray diffraction, FT‐IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM–EDX) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM–EDX) as well as proton induced X‐ray and γ‐ray emission (PIXE–PIGE) at the particle accelerator AGLAE, C2RMF were applied. This study enabled us to define the chemical and structural features of ancient antler at the micro‐ and nanometre scale and compare them to those of other bone materials such as bone and ivory. Antler is richer in its organic fraction compared to bone and ivory. Its mineral fraction, carbonated hydroxylapatite, shows very specific crystal shapes at the nanometre scale. This specific property allowed us to recognize antler traces in pigment samples originating from rock art paintings in the Lascaux cave, Dordogne, southwestern France, Magdalenian period. Therefore, TEM–EDX is the technique of choice for characterizing antler traces in complex mixtures. In the paint material of Lascaux, antler seems most likely to be a pollutant introduced either by stirring the pigments in water with a piece of antler or by carving antler artefacts next to the preparation of paint material. However, it could eventually be used as a marker of paintings that were created contemporaneously.     

PIGMENTS AND PLASTERS FROM THE ROMAN SETTLEMENT OF THAMUSIDA (RABAT,MOROCCO)

A total of 22 samples were taken both from plasters still in situ and from collapsed material recovered by French, Italian and Moroccan teams at the Roman settlement of Thamusida (Rabat, Morocco). The sample characterization was obtained using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, image analysis and Raman micro‐spectroscopy. Plaster aggregate was made using a mixture of sands and clays that outcrop nearby, while lime was probably produced using the local limestone crust, as was further verified for the mortars. The plasters from the bath complexes (public buildings) and the Temple à trois cellae (sacred building) were very poorly made, while those from areas VII and XX (private buildings) indicated the involvement of more expert masons. The pigments used were cinnabar, red ochre, yellow ochre, Egyptian blue, green earth, chalk white and carbon black. The overall manufacture was of low quality, and hence perfectly comparable to that observed in other Roman Provinces. With respect to Italy and to other Mediterranean Roman sites, Thamusida fits well within an aesthetic and technical koinè that differentiates sites of the Italian peninsula from those in the Provinces.