1,720,962 research outputs found
Provenienza di ossidiana di Selva dei Muli (Frosinone)
No full textSono stati sottoposti a determinazione di provenienza, in modo non distruttivo, gli unici tre reperti in ossidiana rinvenuti a Selva dei Muli (FR). Le analisi degli elementi maggiori mediante SEM-EDS e la determinazione delle intensità dei raggi X di alcuni elementi in traccia mediante FRX ha permesso di stabilire la fonte di approvvigionamento di due campioni di ossidiana da Lipari e di un terzo da Palmarola
Early Neolithic potters of the Italian Middle Adriatic region
No full textThis paper presents the preliminary results of the study of the Early Neolithic pottery production in the
Marche region, Italy (VI mill. BC). The main goal of this research is to expand the knowledge of pottery manufacturing
processes associated to the typical Central Adriatic Impressed Ware, at present poorly understood.
All sites under analysis are located in the piedmont hills of the Apennine Mountains, except one which is on
the coast. This study aims to highlight synchronic and diachronic variability in pottery technology, to identify
common traits and to investigate the raw materials selection and exploitation strategies. The pottery
assemblages are examined by means of an integrated approach which include techno-typological and
archaeometric analyses. The environmental factors, the distribution of resources, the technology solutions
taken by these early Neolithic communities are considered
Variability and continuity of ceramic manufacturing of prehistoric pottery from Upper Nubia, Sudan: An ethnographic comparison
No full textIn Nubia (currently northern Sudan), the art of making pottery has a very ancient and durable tradition, dating 20
back to the earlyHolocene and preceding the introduction of a food-producing economy. Ethnographic case stud- 21
ies have demonstrated that this tradition has been preserved in many areas of the country. This paper presents a 22
comparative study of ancient and modern traditional ceramics fromfour prehistoric sites at Sai Island, in the river 23
Nile, and a present-dayworkshop located in the nearby village of Abri. The aim of the study was to investigate any 24
diachronic changes in the selection of clayey raw material and the technological processes of themanufacturing 25
sequence. The study combined macroscopic and analytical approaches and examined a large set of ceramic and 26
local clay samples by means of petrographic (OM), mineralogical (X-ray powder diffraction; XRPD) and chemical 27
(X-ray fluorescence; XRF) analyses. The resulting data underline a remarkable continuity in raw material sourc- 28
ing and composition, as well as in many technological processes, from the ceramic assemblages dating from 29
Abkan cultural horizon (c. 5500 BCE) until to the present-day production in Abri. This continuity emerged after 30
a preceding discontinuity, indicated by a different selection of clay raw material and tempers in the oldest pro- 31
duction dating to the Khartoum Variant horizon (c. 7600–4800 BCE)
The Gargano Promontory Flint: Mining Practices and Archaeometric Characterisation
No full textAn archaeometric project on prehistoric mining has been carried out in the Gargano promontory, in south-eastern Italy, since 1986, leading to the discovery of a large network of at least twenty mining sites, which was active from the Early Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. The large area in which the mines are located, the considerable size of some mines and the skills required, together with the long duration of mining activities (four millennia), enable us to regard the Gargano as one of the main areas of flint supply in the central-northern Mediterranean.
Three geological Gargano formations were mined: the Maiolica, Scaglia and Peschici formations. They appear to differ significantly with regard to the morphology of the flint. In the mines opened in the Nummulite limestone formation, flint seems to occur only as generally rather large lenticular nodules (often more than one metre in diameter). The Maiolica and Scaglia formations are different: the exploited flints primarily occur in the form of spherical and irregular nodules, only in some cases associated with lenticular lists.
During the sixth millennium BC on the Gargano promontory we exclusively find flint mines with entrances opened into the slope of a hill and developing sub-horizontally. This type of mining generated large amounts of mining debris that were accumulated outside the mine and that are sometimes still preserved in their entirety.
Neolithic mining techniques in the Gargano underwent a radical transformation from the fifth millennium BC on and especially during the fourth millennium BC: rather small mines can be identified that are characterised by vertical access to the flint-bearing formations, with or without horizontal digging at the base of the shafts.
Systematic characterisation studies of the flint from primary and secondary Gargano sources are still lacking and the paper presents the plan and the preliminary results of a new project, applying multi-parametric characterisation obtained by non-destructive approaches that are rapid and economic (during this initial stage of the project macroscopic/petrographic description, colour and reflectance/gloss measurements). A total of 151 flint samples, representative of the three flint-bearing limestone formations, the ancient exploitation of which is demonstrated by mining indicators, and of a fourth formation (Fucoid Marls), which has not provided evidence of flint mining
yet, was collected. The flint samples were taken from Neolithic mines and from accessible flint outcrops throughout the Gargano promontory.
The macroscopic description of the flint samples provided a matrix of categorical and numerical data which helps to identify the distinctive features of the four formations investigated. Spectro-colorimetry provided coordinates in CIE L*a*b* colour space and reflectance in the visible spectrum of the flint matrix. The two main mining districts hitherto identified by archaeologists, namely those of Vieste and Peschici, cut into specific formations (Peschici limestone and Maiolica respectively), with mines that exploited flint with various characteristics even within the same formation. However, we observed some chromatic homogeneity at site level. This classification of chromatic and reflectance data confirms the similarities visible to the naked eye between most of the samples from the Maiolica and the Peschici limestone formations, which also turned out to be more homogeneous than the Scaglia and the Fucoid Marls formations. No mines were found in the Fucoid Marls formation, though the quality of flint was similar to that of most of the mining sites in the other formations.
Although our interpretations have to be tested with chemical and mineralogical data, the statistical approach using quantitative macroscopic
data seems to be a promising way of classifying and correlating geological and archaeological flints from the Gargano. Following the steps of the multi-analytical protocol, flints will be analysed with Raman spectroscopy to determine their mineralogical composition, whereas the chemical composition will be obtained by LA-ICP-MS. A detailed micro-structural and palaeontological study will be carried out using a scanning electron microscopy in order to distinguish flint sources of different ages
APPLICAZIONE DI UN PROTOCOLLO ANALITICO NON DISTRUTTIVO MULTIPARAMETRICO PER LO STUDIO DELLE SELCI: DATI PRELIMINARI DA ALCUNI SITI NEOLITICI DELLA PUGLIA
No full textNegli ultimi decenni, la ricerca archeometrica sulle ossidiane ha permesso di definire un quadro abbastanza chiaro di quella che è stata la circolazione nel Mediterraneo centrale in età preistorica, a differenza di ciò che è avvenuto per la selce. Gli studi archeometrici sui materiali selciferi sono relativamente meno numerosi e discontinui nello spazio e nel tempo. Le difficoltà nell’individuare chiari caratteri discriminanti per riconoscere le provenienze, rende più difficile comparare materiali da diverse regioni e ricostruire le antiche vie di circolazione. Le attuali conoscenze archeologiche sulla circolazione della selce nel Mediterraneo centrale identificano il Promontorio del Gargano come uno dei principali giacimenti primari. Inoltre, il Gargano è posizionato su uno degli ipotizzati percorsi di diffusione del Neolitico nell’Italia meridionale, ovvero il ponte di isole adriatiche che collegano la Croazia meridionale con la Puglia. I dati petrografici e chimici precedentemente ottenuti su una selezione di 50 campioni di selce dai distretti estrattivi e da affioramenti geologici in area garganica hanno fornito un database di riferimento da comparare con i nuovi dati ottenuti da strumenti in selce e debitage provenienti dai siti di Scaloria, Masseria Candelaro, Monte Aquilone (Tavoliere) e Balsignano e Madonna delle Grazie (Murge). Nuovi dati colorimetrici (CIELAB) e chimici (pED-XRF) su 80 campioni archeologici mostrano che la maggior parte dei manufatti del Tavoliere, con pochi campioni di area murgiana, condividono le stesse caratteristiche chimiche e cromatiche. Inoltre, le selci di Madonna delle Grazie e Balsignano mostrano dei raggruppamenti composizionali non compatibili con quelli dei distretti estrattivi del Gargano. Le dimensioni ridotte di molti di questi manufatti indicherebbe l’uso di giacimenti secondari di selce, probabilmente riconducibili ai depositi continentali del Tavoliere, non ancora caratterizzati
An analytical techniques pool to hit the target. A comprehensive examination on an Apulian red figured pottery collection
No full textNo abstract availabl
AN OVERVIEW ON APULIAN RED FIGURED POTTERY: FROM MANUFACTURING PROCESSES TO PROVENANCE ISSUES
No full text
TEXTURAL AND MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS APPLIED TO HOLOCENE POTTERY FROM TAKARKORI ROCK SHELTER (SW LIBYA, CENTRAL SAHARA): A QUANTITATIVE SEDIMENTOLOGICAL APPROACH
No full textThis paper proposes the application of digital image processing of plane- and cross-polarized
light photomicrographs to textural and morphometric analysis as an extension of routine
petrographic characterization. The aim is to answer questions on the provenance and technology
of quartz- and calcite-bearing potsherds from the Takarkori rock shelter (Libyan
Sahara, from around 8900 to 4200 uncal. years BP). Specific processing algorithms run on
image analysis freeware (ImageJ) isolate quartz and calcite inclusions to obtain quantitative
textural and morphometric data that are useful in identifying different local fluvial and
swampy sedimentary environments as sources of sandy clays for pottery
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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