Download.pdf Download (.pdf).5A multivariate integrated study of red slipped ceramics by micro-Raman and SEM techniquesDownload.pdf Download (.pdf).56th International Congress on the application of Raman Spectroscopy in Art and Archaeology, Parma-Italy; poster: “A multivariate integrated study of red slipped ceramics by micro-Raman and SEM techniques”; Parma september 2011.

Cavalieri, Marco [UCL] et al.

In the archaeological site of Aiano-Torraccia di Chiusi (Siena-Italy) the remains of a Roman Villa, dated between the beginning of 4th century and the end of the 5th century or the beginning of the 6th A.D., were discovered. The complex, abandoned in the 6th century A.D. was occupied by a group of barbaric artisans, in the period between the 6th and the 7th century A.D. The area had never been studied before the summer of 2005, when the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL, Belgium) decided to start an international project, called “VII Regio. Elsa Valley during Roman Age and Late Antiquity”, to systematically explore the site and re-examine, on the basis of new data, the numerous questions, on the population, the economy, the rural environment, etc. of the Valdelsa area in the Roman period. Numerous ceramic findings (acrome grezze, ingobbiate, acrome depurate and semidepurate, sigillate africane) were discovered in the archaeological site; dated 5-7th century, they characterize the phases of existence, neglect and collapse of the structure and of the Late Roman and early Middle Ages re-use. The abundance of the so-called ceramics ingobbiate (red slipped) and their relative large diffusion, represents a strongly element characterizing the last re-use phase of the villa. This prompts to the Université catholique de Louvain and to the University of Florence to performer a complete archeometric study of these ceramic typologies. The red slipped ceramics were analyzed using different analytical methodologies (OM, SEM- EDS, ATR FTIR and micro-Raman) in order to characterize the paste and the cover of the ingobbiate and to determine the compositional relationship among different kinds of ceramics. The micro-Raman technique allowed dealing with a terminological difficult subject about the cover too.