IDENTIFICATION AND RESTORATION OF LATE ROMAN AMPHORA, 4TH-6TH CENTURIES AD. FROM EL-BAHNASA SITE, MINIA, EGYPT

Abstract

Amphoras are large ceramic vessels which were used, in the Greaco-Roman period, to shipwine and other liquid products throughout the Mediterranean. An amphora was excavated atEl-Bahnasa archaeological site at the south of Egypt and it dates back to the Late Romanperiod (4th-6th centuries AD.). The condition of the amphora was very poor and suffered frommany deterioration phenomena including, accumulation of dirt and soil residues, narrow andwide cracks, decay and fragility of pottery body and crystallization of salts. Furthermore, manyshards are broken from the body and some are missing. The aim of the present paper is tostudy the chemical and the mineralogical composition of the clay body, the soil residues andthe crystallized salts and to restore it. Different analytical methods were used including; X-raydiffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive Xrayspectroscopy (EDS). The results obtained by (XRD) reported that clay body containsQuartz (SiO2), Calcite (CaCO3), Anorthite (CaAl2Si2O8), Halite (NaCl), Magnetite (Fe3O4),Dolomite (Ca Mg(CO3) and Hematite (Fe2O3), while the salt is Halite mineral (Sodiumchloride). The soil residues sample consists of Halite, Quartz and Calcite. Different restorationtreatments were carried out on the amphora comprising; mechanical and chemical cleaning,consolidation, bonding and replacement processes.