A multivariate approach to the study of orichalcum ingots from the underwater Gela's archaeological site

Caponetti, Eugenio; Armetta, Francesco; Brusca, L.; Martino, Delia Chillura; Saladino, Maria Luisa; Ridolfi, Stefano; Chirco, Gabriella; Conti, Paolo; Bruno, Nicolò; Tusa, Sebastiano

doi:10.1016/j.microc.2017.09.003

Cited by 22 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Moreover, samples 71 and 73 are dated to the Roman and Hellenistic periods, respectively, when brass objects were already largely distributed among Greek territories. 54,55 However, samples 8, 14, and 65 are assigned to the 1300-950 BC period, while sample 61 is even earlier as it dates to the Middle Helladic period ($2100-1550 BC). On the other hand, pre-Hellenistic copper alloys from Greek lands are usually bronzes, i.e., they contain a substantial amount of tin (e.g., 10%), and zinc rarely exceeds 1%, 54,56 while here a qualitatively opposite situation is suggested.…”

Section: Provenancementioning

confidence: 99%

Kynos Through Time: Decorated Pottery Sherds from Eleven Strata of a Homeric Greek Site

et al. 2018

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Excavations at the Kynos settlement, a Homeric site and the home of an early school of key Greek pictorial pottery painting, revealed extensive remains of several chronological horizons which continuously span the period from Middle Helladic (∼2100 BC) to Byzantine times (330 AD onwards), along with thousands of decorated sherds. The scope of the present study is the exploration of the technological traits of this pottery, which would contribute substantially to the archaeological understanding of the site. Samples from a sizeable assembly of decorated sherds were studied by means of analytical techniques, i.e., scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) analyzer, micro X-ray fluorescence (μXRF), and portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF). Results indicate that the dark decorations have been achieved by versions of the iron reduction (IRe) technique using mostly materials identical to those of the red decorations, while for the white decorations contrast-enhancing Ca-Mg-enriched clays were used. All coexisting red and dark hues reflect similar compositions while the color difference is due to the thicker application of the darker decorations, which are thus not affected by the last oxidative firing stage of the IRe technique. X-ray fluorescence analysis focusing on several clay-origin markers shows that only a minority of samples is of non-local character and continuity in Kynos pottery tradition, at least as far as raw materials is suggested. Some of the local body-clays exhibit a puzzling enhanced level of Ni, Cu, and Zn at a nearly fixed ratio. Finally, we find that XRF may provide valuable nondestructive analysis in the case of fine pottery decorative layers of cultural significance.

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Section: Provenancementioning

confidence: 99%

Kynos Through Time: Decorated Pottery Sherds from Eleven Strata of a Homeric Greek Site

et al. 2018

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“…Because they provide important evidence for the history of human civilization, underwater cultural heritage relics around the world need to be protected by scientific means (Koschtial ; Caponetti et al . ). In 2001, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) formulated an important joint convention, putting forward the basic principles for protecting underwater cultural relics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Application of veratraldehyde as a temporary consolidant for relics at underwater cultural heritage sites

Chen

Zhang

2019

Archaeometry

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Because it is often difficult to preserve fragile relics in situ at underwater cultural heritage sites, it is sometimes necessary for relics to be extracted and moved to a controlled environment on land for protection and study. This paper discusses the feasibility of using the volatile organic compound veratraldehyde as a temporary consolidant for underwater fragile relics extraction. The results show that different materials (iron, tile, sand, wood) under water can be bonded together and extracted when using veratraldehyde. The fact that veratraldehyde is difficult to spread on the surface of underwater objects is a problem that can be solved by adding a layer of strong hydrophobic polypropylene (PP) fibres onto the object, serving as a 'package' for the relics. Under laboratory conditions, we used veratraldehyde and PP fibres to extract broken tiles from underwater sand onto an exhibition stand. The broken tiles, in both condition and distribution, were safely and completely retained as the veratraldehyde was slowly removed by the soaking process. This work fills a gap in knowledge about temporary consolidant materials in underwater archaeology, and provides a new method for extracting underwater fragile cultural relics without damaging them.

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“…Examples include, but are not limited to, sites, buildings, shipwrecks and their cargoes, and items with historical value. The seabed is home to an enormous amount of underwater cultural heritage that reflects the materials, trade and economics employed by ancient societies, as well as unique, irreversible events that took place during specific periods in antiquity (Koschtial 2008;Caponetti et al 2017). One of the most important underwater cultural heritage sites are ancient shipwrecks and their cargoes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporary consolidation and packaging of fragile cultural relics at underwater archaeological sites to maintain their original state during extraction

et al. 2020

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The flexible sponge/epoxy composite can wrap underwater artefacts in any shape and forms a protective shell after curing, thus effectively wrapping and reinforcing the artefacts. However, the hydroscopicity of the sponge itself limits the underwater application of the sponge/epoxy composite. In this study, a novel polyurethane sponge was prepared by modified with super‐hydrophobic multi‐wall carbon nanotubes (SH‐MWCNTs@PU sponge). Compared with the pristine PU sponge, the water‐contact angle on the surface of SH‐MWCNTs@PU sponges increased from 103.3 ± 1.82 to 152.6 ± 1.54o, and oily epoxy resin was able to cover the surface completely. The study shows that when SH‐MWCNTs@PU sponges/epoxy resin composite material is used underwater, it prevents both water from entering the sponge and also the inside epoxy resin from overflowing into the water. Moreover, the composite materials have excellent toughness after reinforcement under water (flexural strength = 3.56 MPa) and the soft sponges can be moulded to wrap any type of underwater artefacts. In the laboratory, when taking a broken, three‐dimensional blue‐and‐white porcelain pot as a research subject, the entire retrieval process—temporary stabilization, packaging, extraction and reinforcement material removal—was simulated to evaluate systematically all the technological aspects of safely excavating fragile underwater relics.

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A multivariate approach to the study of orichalcum ingots from the underwater Gela's archaeological site

Cited by 22 publications

References 9 publications

Kynos Through Time: Decorated Pottery Sherds from Eleven Strata of a Homeric Greek Site

Kynos Through Time: Decorated Pottery Sherds from Eleven Strata of a Homeric Greek Site

Application of veratraldehyde as a temporary consolidant for relics at underwater cultural heritage sites

Temporary consolidation and packaging of fragile cultural relics at underwater archaeological sites to maintain their original state during extraction

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