Claudio Capelli

The Port-Vendres 4 Shipwreck Cargo: evidence of the Roman wine trade in the western Mediterranean

The Port-Vendres 4 shipwreck is evidence of coastal export trade between Hispania Citerior and Narbonne in 40/30 BC. The cargo is made up of a particular assemblage of Roman wine amphoras (Pascual 1, Dressel 1B and Lamboglia 2) destined for Gallic markets. Archaeological and archaeometric analyses conducted on a selection of the amphoras allowed the provenance of the cargo to be identified as Hispania Citerior and the central-southern Tyrrhenian coast of Italy. Iluro and/or Baetulo are proposed as the ports of departure, enabling the reconstruction of the trade route and the historical and economic significance of this shipwreck.

Technological implications of neo-formed hematite crystals in ceramic lead glazes

ABSTRACT Hexagonal neo-formed crystallites have been observed in thin section of different medieval and post-medieval lead-glazed ceramics. Although they are clearly visible in thin section using plane polarized light, their plate shape makes them barely seen on the polished cross sections. Basal sections have never been found on the polished sections and only few transversal very thin sections could be seen. In this case, the morphology resembles acicular and it is not possible to analyze them properly by SEM–EDX because the crystals are very thin and the glaze surrounding is analyzed as well. Micro-Raman microscopy was carried out directly on the polished thin sections. This technique allows specific areas as small as 1 μm in diameter to be analyzed and it is able to characterize inclusions that are not found on the glaze surface. However, the wavenumber features observed cannot be assigned to a specific compound. The thickness of the crystallites (a few hundred nanometers) seems to be responsible for the low sensitivity of the Raman instrumentation. 15 × 15 μm2 micro-X-ray diffraction patterns using synchrotron radiation (SR-μXRD) in transmission geometry were obtained from the crystals using the same thin section preparation. SR-μXRD was able to localize the crystallites and avoid the overlapping signals corresponding to other mineral phases. In this way, the hexagonal crystallites present in the glaze have been unambiguously identified as hematite crystallites. Finally, some replications were made under laboratory-controlled conditions to determine the firing conditions in the formation of those crystallites. The presence of hematite coexisting with melanotekite indicates a firing temperature <925°C, while the presence of only hematite suggests a firing temperature >925°C

A Roman amphora production site near Lepcis Magna: petrographic analyses of the fabrics

A coastal survey carried out in the area of Lepcis Magna in November 2010 located a ceramic kiln site, which seemed to be mainly producing Tripolitania II amphorae. Archaeometric analysis was carried out on samples recovered from the site to characterise the fabrics and confirm this hypothesis.

A local production of Mid Roman 1 amphorae at Latrun, Cyrenaica

Excavations at the village of Erythron/Latrun near Apollonia in Cyrenaica uncovered a potters rubbish dump in an abandoned Roman bath complex, thought to be linked to the nearby potters kiln. Common wares and lamps were produced here and of particular note were Mid Roman 1 amphorae. These amphorae were thought to have been produced mainly in Sicily but also North Africa, and with the new discovery at Latrun we can now also add Cyrenaica to the list. Archaeometric (thin section) analysis on samples from the site confirms this theory.