Integrating archaeology,archaeometry and geology: local production technology and imports at Paola (Cosenza,Southern Italy)

This paper documents a comprehensive study of coarse wares for table use, serving, washing and cooking, found at the archaeological site of Paola (Cosenza, southern Italy). Major aims of the study were to group local products and imports and to determine technological features of local products. Results were obtained through a combination of archaeological (stratigraphy and ceramic typology), chemical and mineralogical–petrographical techniques (ICP-OES, ICP-MS, INAA, XRF, OM, SEM-EDS and EMPA). Data integration revealed that the coarse wares found at Paola were produced locally or imported over short (Calabria region), medium (Campania, Pantelleria, Sicily) and long distances (Greece and Africa). The local production focused on basins, stewpots, pitchers, bowls, pans, casseroles and lids, sometimes imitating African, or Pompei (Campania) or San Foca (Puglia) typical shapes. The production technology of local ceramics used a sandy–clayey blend of materials collected in the immediate vicinity of the archaeological site, fired at intermediate (about 800 °C) to low (around 650–750 °C) temperatures and used a Fe-rich clayey compound as a red ceramic coating. From a technological perspective, the Paola example arise new questions about table wares produced with clay bodies typical of cooking wares.     

Provenance of marble sculptures and artifacts from the so-called Canopus and other buildings of “Villa Adriana” (Hadrian's villa – Tivoli,Italy)

The results of a minero-petrographic and isotopic study carried out on the marbles of statues and architectural elements belonging to several buildings on the “Hadrian's Villa” site (the so-called Canopus, the Peschiera, the Sala dei Pilastri Dorici and the Serapeum) are presented here as part of an ongoing archaeometric project which considers the determination of the provenance of all the marble decorations of the Villa complex. Analytical data indicate the prevailing presence of marmor lunense and the use of Pentelic and Thasian marbles for architectural elements in a few parts of the Sala dei Pilastri Dorici, the Peschiera and the Serapeum; no significant use is made of Proconnesian marble, probably the most inexpensive of the time. Analysis of sculptures from the Canopus showed that those of the Tiber and Nile gods were made of Parian marble, the Caryatids and Telamons of Pentelic marble and the Amazons of the precious white Dokymaean marble.     

Roman Millstones from Orvieto (Italy): Petrographic and Geochemical Data for A New Archaeometric Contribution

The probable site of extraction and production of Pompeian‐style leucite‐bearing millstones, singled out by Peacock (1980, 1986) in the vicinity of Orvieto, and the outcropping of the ‘Leucitophyre’ lava have been systematically studied employing standard petrographic and geochemical methods (optical microscopy and ICP–AES/MS spectrometry). The combination of petrochemical data, previously very poor, allowed us definitively to exclude the possible ‘overlap’ of phonolitic and tephri‐phonolitic lavas from other Quaternary Volcanic Districts of Latium, and provides a helpful tool for future work on leucitite millstones. Consequently, the databank obtained has been used to attribute the origin of five Roman millstones discovered in three archaeological sites in central Italy (Latium and Marche). It has also been useful to verify the geological provenance of some Sicilian and French leucitite millstones analysed by previous workers. The results point to a provenance from the Orvieto area, with the exception of the millstones from Sicily, for which a different origin was hypothesized.     

Predynastic Egypt: new data from Maadi

Recent research in the easternmost area of the Maadi village-site near Cairo has yielded new data concerning both the nature of the occupation and the economy of the predynastic communities in Lower Egypt. Imported objects and raw materials, together with specialized crafts, have already suggested the existence of well organized village life, enriched by trading activities and foreign contacts, somehow related to expanding spheres of prestige. These conclusions are now amplified by evidence for a wide range of fully domesticated animal and plant species, including the remarkable occurrence of the domestic ass.Evaluation of both the artefacts and their distribution leads us to distinguish different areas in the site and to relate them to a long development through time. It is now necessary that more detailed typological comparisons be undertaken.

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Résumé Des recherches récentes dans la partie orientale du site de l'ancien village de Maadi près du Caire ont fourni de nouvelles données concernant la nature de l'occupation et l'économie des communautés pré-dynastiques en Basse Egypte. Des objets et des matières premières importés, ainsi que les artisanats spécialisés, avaient déjà suggéré que la vie au village était bien organisée, et enrichie par le commerce et par des contacts avec l'étranger, et que ceci était lié d'une manière quelconque à des sphères de prestige en expansion. Ces conclusions sont maintenant amplifiées par les évidences de toute une série d'espèces d'animaux et de plantes tout à fait domestiquées, y compris l'occurrence remarquable de l'âne domestiqué. L'évaluation des trouvailles et de leur répartition nous amène à distinguer de différentes zones d'activité dans le gisement, et les rattache à un long développement à travers le temps. Des comparaisons typologiques plus détaillées devraient maintenant être entreprises.

     

Archaeometric characterisation of coarse and painted fine ware from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Posta Crusta</Emphasis> (Foggia,Italy): technology and provenance

Coarse and painted fine wares from the Late Antique residential complex of Posta Crusta (Lucera, Foggia, Italy) have been here investigated. The ceramic characterisation was our main concern; even so, the provenance and the production technology have been further investigated, focusing on both ceramic bodies and coatings. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and a set of bulk chemical analyses (inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, instrumental neutron activation and X-ray fluorescence) were used for the characterisation of 44 samples. Chemical and mineralogical data here obtained were compared with results previously achieved on San Giusto local production, in order to distinguish production areas and identify possible exchanges. As for coarse wares, the characterisation of Posta Crusta pottery shed new light for the reconstruction of the production/distribution framework of this part of northern Apulia. The following trends can be identified: (1) pots from Posta Crusta and San Giusto settlement that can be referred to a single production site, likely located in the nearby territory of one of this two sites; (2) pots from San Giusto kiln exported to Posta Crusta; (3) pots of unknown origin but compatible with the northern Apulian area. Furthermore, it was possible to verify that all Posta Crusta ceramics used the alluvial deposits widely outcropping in northern Apulia as received. As for painted fine wares, Posta Crusta samples enucleated a distinct and homogenous group, including six samples from San Giusto. This result is highly encouraging as it provides the clear evidence of a production group, although it is not possible to refer it to a precise locality. The marine deposits outcropping in northern Apulia can have been surely exploited for raw materials supply. Coatings texture seems to suggest two different ways of application: immersion and painting.     

Colourless glass from the Palatine and Esquiline hills in Rome (Italy). New data on antimony- and manganese-decoloured glass in the Roman period

A collection of 21 glass samples (18 colourless and 3 light aqua blue) found in recent excavations performed at the Palatine and Esquiline hills in Rome has been investigated by means of SEM-EDS, EMPA and LA-ICP-MS. The glass was recovered in the “Baths of Helagabalus” and the Horti Lamiani. The collection included cups and bowls widely attested in Rome and Ostia from the late second to the first half of the third century AD. The analyses assigned this collection to the RC/LAC-MnSb groups (Roman and Late Antique colourless glass with both antimony and manganese) which seemed closely related to the Levantine area.     

The use of white marbles for sculpture in Roman Gortyn (Crete) as revealed by archaeometric analyses

Gortyn was an important Cretan town from the late Archaic to the Hellenistic period and then became one of the provincial capitals of the Roman Empire. It controlled the whole of Crete and Cyrenaica and was a flourishing centre of trade and agricultural products in the first centuries of our era. In more than 100 years, many portions of the Greek and Roman town were unearthed under the supervision of the Italian Archaeological School of Athens and a considerable number of stone artefacts found, many of them made of imported marble since the local variety was grey and of poor quality. Statuary and other prestigious marble sculpted artefacts found in Gortyn were sampled and subjected to archaeometric examination (by way of optical microscopy in thin section, powder X-Ray diffraction and mass spectometry for the determination of the C and O isotopic ratio) in order to identify the quarries they came from. The results obtained from the analysis of several dozen white marble objects have indicated the use of a quite wide variety of species including Parian (from Lakkoi), Pentelic, Thasian (dolomitic and calcitic) and (occasionally) Proconnesian marbles. The first three, especially Pentelic, were used for most of the statuary.     

Italy and the EU's environment and consumer policies: coalition‐building,problem framing and informal channels of influence

This article examines Rome City Council's policies concerning the Roma during Francesco Rutelli's two terms as mayor (1993-2001). It demonstrates that the Rutelli administration's policies for these minority communities shifted from a superficial but genuine attempt to overcome aspects of marginalization to a criminalizing strategy of exclusion. It is argued here that the failure significantly to improve the social conditions of the Roma was due to (a) a refusal to tackle the inter-related causes of their social exclusion and (b) submission to the anti- Roma hostility of parts of the voting public. Following the demolition of Rome's largest shanty town in October 2000, the Council was unable to house many of the Roma it had made homeless. It would seem that a 'cleaning-up' campaign was intro duced to distance undocumented individuals and those with criminal records from the city through a notable rise in police raids. This change in approach was accompanied and justified by an intensification of ethni cized public order discourse.