Reflections into Ptolemaic glass: Colorless,white, blue,and green inlays from the workshop of Tebtynis

Inlays range among the most aesthetically pleasing and technically challenging glasses produced in the Ptolemaic period. Despite the central role of this phase in the history of glass technology, little is known about the recipes and the technological knowledge of the Egyptian artisans. This paper will thus focus on the study of the materials from the secondary workshop of Tebtynis (Fayum oasis, Egypt). We report the first multi-methodological study comprising textural, chemical, and mineralogical analyses (optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive system, electron probe microanalysis, and μ-Raman spectroscopy) on a set of 81 colorless, white, blue, and green samples carefully selected among the 800+ glasses from the craft area now stored at the Museo Egizio, Turin (Italy). Our study offers the biggest compositional database of well-dated Ptolemaic glasses currently available in the literature, highlighting some interesting novelties regarding the silica and alkali sources, and the coloring and opacifying techniques employed. The results suggest a specialized craft of traditional origin, but open to innovation and experimentation, as expected from transitional phases.     

Characterization of elemental and firing-dependent properties of Phlegrean ceramics by non-destructive ED-XRF and NMR techniques

A combination of energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) and 2D proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) relaxometry was employed for the characterization of two groups of similar ceramic fragments from the high-medieval production of the Phlegrean area (Miseno and Cuma, Southern Italy). Both methods are based on the use of non-destructive and portable instruments. This approach allows to correlate complementary microstructural features of ceramics, both dependent and independent of the firing technique.     

Blaming the southern victim: Cancer and the Italian ‘Southern Question’ in Terra dei fuochi and Taranto

In this article, the author addresses two critical environmental situations in southern Italy: the Terra dei fuochi (Land of fires) near Naples, characterized by a history of illegal disposal of toxic waste, and Taranto, where the Ilva steel plants have a record of exceeding the legal emission limits for several pollutants. Despite a recognition of these situations, public political discourse in Italy still tends to link the higher than average incidence of cancer in the two areas to lifestyles rather than to environmental factors. The author locates this phenomenon within the larger context of the ‘Southern Question’ – the historical stigmatization of southern Italy as backwards and uncivilized. She argues that this same stereotype not only stigmatizes a geographical region, but also facilitates the stigmatization of the people who become ill in Taranto and Terra dei fuochi as the result of lifestyle rather than environmental factors. Furthermore, this same stereotype also stigmatizes social movements against the pollution as irrational and uncivilized. Previous studies have linked situations of environmental injustice to the Global South or to specific areas with racialized stereotypes; here it is argued that the whole southern half of Italy can be considered a new geographic scale in which phenomena of environmental injustice, denial of environmental causes of disease, and geographic stigmas, intersect.     

Firing technique characterization of black-slipped pottery in Praeneste by low field 2D NMR relaxometry

This study was aimed at individuating characteristics related to the pottery’s firing technique of Classical Roman producers, through the low field single-sided NMR relaxometry. The approach is based on a recent method of analysis, the correlation of the longitudinal and transverse NMR relaxation times of a liquid probe (in this case distilled water) filling the porous system of ceramics. The analyzed findings form two homogeneous classes with dating and place of production well established through the producer trademarks. Pottery findings belong to the black-slipped pottery productions of the Latin ancient city of Praeneste between third and second century B.C. and have been attributed to two different ”patriziae” production families: gens Samiaria and gens Trebonia. A further fragment with Greek kylix style, found in the same archaeological area, has also been analyzed, in order to understand if it had been imported from Greece, or made in Praeneste in imitation of the Greek style.