In this work we present the result of a research finalized to put forth new elements about technology of the pottery production in the Middle Bronze Age in Sicily (15th-13th century BC) by using fractal models. Recently, this approach successfully applied to study Hellenistic-Roman pottery from Syracuse (Sicily, Southern Italy) [Barbera, 2013], evidenced the efficiency of fractal geometry in description of the meso and micro scale structure of the ceramics in order to obtain technological informations. The lack of archaeometric data about the pottery production of Prehistoric Sicilyrepresents the main problem currently conditioning future advances in archaeological research. The characterization of ancient ceramics is complex due to the heterogeneity of the materials on different scales and to the coexistence of amorphous and crystalline phase in the same sample. For these reason, a complete structural characterization could be achieved through investigation at different scales of observation. A group of Middle Bronze Age pottery from the cave site of Grotte di Marineo (Licodia Eubea, Catania, Italy) was selected, as case study. The sampled potteries belong to the three chronological sub-phases in which the local Bronze Age can be divided. The goal of this study is to acquireinformation about the evolution of technological aspects of pottery manufacture over the time. In particular we investigate the firing temperature and technological production processes. The mesoscopic structure of the samples has been investigated through small angle neutron scattering (SANS), in order to obtain information about the size and surface characteristics of the aggregates of minerals and voids. These parameters are reported in literature dependent to the firing technology used in the production process [Botti, 2006]. All the obtained results were interpreted in the framework of fractal model. Data have been also compared with the mesoscopic parameters and fractal dimension extracted for clay sediments typical of the Sicilian area and fired under controlled conditions [Barone, 2009]. The observed agreement between the features of reference and archeological samples allowed us to estimate the maximum firing temperature of the latter. Barbera et al, J Arch Sci, 40: 983–991, 2013. Barone et al., J Appl Phys, 106: 054904, 2009. Botti et al., J. Arch Sci, 33: 307-319, 2006.
Application of fractal models to ancient ceramics: structural and technological aspects
RANERI, SIMONA;
2013-01-01
Abstract
In this work we present the result of a research finalized to put forth new elements about technology of the pottery production in the Middle Bronze Age in Sicily (15th-13th century BC) by using fractal models. Recently, this approach successfully applied to study Hellenistic-Roman pottery from Syracuse (Sicily, Southern Italy) [Barbera, 2013], evidenced the efficiency of fractal geometry in description of the meso and micro scale structure of the ceramics in order to obtain technological informations. The lack of archaeometric data about the pottery production of Prehistoric Sicilyrepresents the main problem currently conditioning future advances in archaeological research. The characterization of ancient ceramics is complex due to the heterogeneity of the materials on different scales and to the coexistence of amorphous and crystalline phase in the same sample. For these reason, a complete structural characterization could be achieved through investigation at different scales of observation. A group of Middle Bronze Age pottery from the cave site of Grotte di Marineo (Licodia Eubea, Catania, Italy) was selected, as case study. The sampled potteries belong to the three chronological sub-phases in which the local Bronze Age can be divided. The goal of this study is to acquireinformation about the evolution of technological aspects of pottery manufacture over the time. In particular we investigate the firing temperature and technological production processes. The mesoscopic structure of the samples has been investigated through small angle neutron scattering (SANS), in order to obtain information about the size and surface characteristics of the aggregates of minerals and voids. These parameters are reported in literature dependent to the firing technology used in the production process [Botti, 2006]. All the obtained results were interpreted in the framework of fractal model. Data have been also compared with the mesoscopic parameters and fractal dimension extracted for clay sediments typical of the Sicilian area and fired under controlled conditions [Barone, 2009]. The observed agreement between the features of reference and archeological samples allowed us to estimate the maximum firing temperature of the latter. Barbera et al, J Arch Sci, 40: 983–991, 2013. Barone et al., J Appl Phys, 106: 054904, 2009. Botti et al., J. Arch Sci, 33: 307-319, 2006.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
