Archaeometric Studies of Ancient Ceramics from the Roman Villa of Aiano-Torraccia di Chiusi (Siena, Italia)

Cavalieri, Marco [UCL] et al.

The roman villa of Aiano-Torraccia di Chiusi is located in Tuscany (San Gimignano, Siena -Italy), in the area so-called “alta Val d' Elsa”; this structure has been occupied continuatevely from the III sec. B.C until at least at the end of the VII A.D. The ceramic findings can be placed in a chronological range that goes from the second half-end of the V century A.D., until VII century A.D. A constant presence of ceramics acrome grezze, ingobbiate (red covered), acrome depurate and semidepurate, characterizes the phases of existence, neglect and collapse of the structure and of the tardoantico and altomedievale re-use. The abundance of so-called ceramics ingobbiate (red covered) and their relative large diffusion, represents a strongly element characterizing the tardoantiche and transition between tardoantiche and altomedioevale phases. This prompts to the Université Catholique de Louvain and to the University of the Studies of Florence to performe a complete archeometric study of these ceramic typologies. Analytical methodologies have been carried out in order to determine the composition of the different ceramics findings, in particular the “ingobbiate”. XRD, XRF, micro-Raman, SEM-EDS and petrographic analyses have been performed. A FTIR spectrometer in ATR configuration has been used for the comparison of the composition of the ceramic pastes of ingobbiate and their covering (ingobbio). Archeometric investigations realized also on the ceramics acrome grezze and semidepurate allowed the knowlwdge of the local production in a large time interval. Moreover the characterization of the findings of the raw clay packages in the archeological site allowed hypothesizing the kind of materials used in the realization of the ceramics.