PXRF and Ceramic Analysis at Poggio Civitate (Murlo)

Rasenna: Journal of the Center for Etruscan Studies Volume 5 | Issue 1 Article 4 2016 PXRF and Ceramic Analysis at Poggio Civitate (Murlo) Jason Bauer The Poggio Civitate Archaeological Project, Anthony Tuck University of Massachusetts - Amherst, Bradley Duncan Lewis Research Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Daniel Moore Indiana State University, Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/rasenna Recommended Citation Bauer, Jason; Tuck, Anthony; Duncan, Bradley; and Moore, Daniel (2017) "PXRF and Ceramic Analysis at Poggio Civitate (Murlo)," Rasenna: Journal of the Center for Etruscan Studies: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, Article 4. Available at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/rasenna/vol5/iss1/4 This Note or Report is brought to you for free and open access by the CES Electronic Resources at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Rasenna: Journal of the Center for Etruscan Studies by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact . PXRF and Ceramic Analysis at Poggio Civitate (Murlo) Jason Bauer1, Anthony Tuck2, Brad Duncan2, and Daniel Moore3 Poggio Civitate: Archaeological Summary Poggio Civitate, an Etruscan site spanning the Iron Age into the Archaic Period (circa 900 – 550/535 BCE), preserves evidence of two major phases of building. The earlier phase (circa 675/650 BCE to circa 600 BCE), consisted of both elite and non-elite residential architecture, a monumental religious structure as well as an exceptionally large building dedicate to manufacturing of a number of different types of commodities. This phase of the site was destroyed in a fire and replaced by a single, massive structure of the Archaic period, a 60m x 60m, four winged structure. This building stood until the third quarter of the 6th century when it was systematically dismantled and the site abandoned from that point forward. To date, evidence both from Poggio Civitate as well as from sites on its immediate periphery suggest that Poggio Civitate served as an aristocratic center of a non-nuclear community dispersed atop a number of adjacent hilltop settlements akin to the system of comunes that is employed in the region today. Image 2: Reconstructed View from the North of Poggio Civitate’s 7th century BCE Aristocratic Complex (circa 675-600 BCE) Image 7: Handheld XRF Image 8: View of the Crete, the region bordering Poggio Civitate to the east, with some of the central Mediterranean’s largest clay resources. X-Ray Fluorescence at Poggio Civitate Image 1: Central Italy with Major Urban Centers in the 7th century BCE In an effort to add another dimension to our understanding of ceramic manufacturing at Poggio Civitate, over 400 different types of ceramic objects recovered at the site were tested with a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. X-ray fluorescence is a non-destructive analysis technique that irradiates the surface of a sample with X-rays and records the X-rays emitted from the sample. The overall spectra produced is based on the elements present in the sample as each element produces a defined spectra. Following principal component analysis (PCA), the elemental data can then be used to determine ceramic groupings among the architectural terracotta and other forms of ceramic recovered at the site. Image 11: Graph 3 - As is shown in this graph, the artifacts with inscriptions are clustered with the rest of the samples and are not outliers. The three examples selected for comparison are 19780064 (a buccheroid vessel base with a siglum of an alpha), 20090211 (and inscribed rocchetto with the enigmatic word RIXA), and 19760096 (a bucchero cup fragment bearing the personal name Shethinas). Evidence for Literacy at Poggio Civitate Researchers at Poggio Civitate are in the process of completing a study on all surviving examples of inscriptions in the Etruscan language from the site. While some examples of inscribed objects appear to come from communities beyond Poggio Civitate, several inscribed objects seem to be made of ceramic similar to the vast majority of bucchero and impasto recovered from the site, suggesting some degree of literacy at Poggio Civitate as early as the mid to late seventh century BCE. Comparison of the elemental signature of a number of inscribed ceramic objects to bucchero and impasto as well as locally collected clay samples indicates that some inscribed objects were manufactured from clay sources native to Poggio Civitate itself. Hundreds of examples of roofing tiles produced from local clay sources display letters and symbols on their upper surfaces, drawn with a finger while the clay was still wet. Several longer inscriptions incised onto ceramic objects also drawn from local clay sources indicate that at least some element of the ancient population of Poggio Civitate possessed a degree of literacy during central Italy’s socially and technologically dynamic 7th century BCE. Image 3: Reconstructed View of Poggio Civitate’s 6th century BCE Monumental Edifice (circa 600-535 BCE) Image 9: Graph 1 - Soil Comparisons These data show clustering of the Montorgiali, Murlo N, Cava, and the Tesoro data points. Image 12: PC19780064 – buccheriod vessel base with alpha siglum Image 5: Reconstructed View of Poggio Civitate’s Orientalizing Period Complex 2/Workshop, a large industrial space dedicated to a number of different forms of manufacturing (circe 675-600 BCE) Image 4: Mold for the Production of a Decorative Antefix recovered from the floor of Orientalizing Period Complex 2/Workshop Image 6: Unfired roofing tiles recovered from the floor of Orientalizing Period Complex 2/Workshop’s floor Local Ceramic and Terracotta Industry at Poggio Civitate Archaeological evidence at Poggio Civitate for the large-scale conversion of local clay sources into a range of architectural and ceramic products is considerable. Recovered from the floor of the site’s 7th century BCE manufacturing structure (OC2/Workshop) were examples of unfired roofing tiles, unfired revetment plaques, a matrix for a form of decorative antefix, as well as dozens of examples of amorphous lumps of clay, many preserving indications of fingerprints from the hands of artisans processing them into finished objects. Additionally, the hundreds of examples of intact and fragmentary types of ceramic vessels recovered at Poggio Civitate represent forms unparalleled at any other site in the region, suggesting that such materials were also locally manufactured. 1 - Poggio Civitate Arcaheological Project, 2 - UMass Amherst, 3 - Carleton College Ceramic analysis and data collection took place during the 2013 field season season from June 26-August 1st 2014. Special thanks to Eoin O’Donoghue, Lucy Shipley, and Bonnie Etter for their help in the collection of readings from the hundreds of ceramic samples this summer. We plan to continue program of data recovery and analysis during the 2014 season. Image 13: PC 20090211- impa (...truncated)