ROMAN CERAMIC PIECES FROM CENTRAL SPAIN: VISUAL, TEXTURAL, CHEMICAL, MINERALOGICAL AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

A complete visual, mineralogical, textural, chemical and statistical study is presented of thirty ceramic spec- imens recovered from various Roman archaeological sites in central Spain (Ávila). Therefore, the novelty of this work is that we report the first complete study of pottery fragments in the Ávila region (Castile and Le- on, Spain) dating back to the Roman Empire. Potential/local raw materials were characterised, in order to classify ancient pottery samples by origin. The presence of firing minerals in the ancient ceramic samples was studied, to investigate the technology used in their manufacture. Another innovation of this article is that the statistical study has established links between ceramic samples, shedding further light on knowledge of manufacturing techniques in this region during the Roman Empire. Similar materials were identified in most of the ceramic pieces from the archaeological sites, all present in the local geological environment, which underlines their autochthonous origin. The raw materials were ini- tially chosen on the basis of the final use of the sample (typology of the samples: Terra sigillata hispanica, common pottery and tegulae). The samples were manufactured within three different temperature ranges (temperature > 900Cº, between 900 – 800ºC and between 800– 600ºC) and under three different redox environments (oxidizing, reduction and irregular conditions). Non-plastic inclusions were added, intentionally or otherwise, to the initial clay, depending on the final typology of the sample.