Multielemental and Chemical Characterization of Eneolithic Petresti Painted Pottery from the Alba Iulia-Lumea Noua Archaeological Site, Romania

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the chemical composition of nineteen painted pottery fragments belonging to the Eneolithic Petresti culture in order to identify the relationship between the ceramic artifacts and potential clay sources located in the proximity of the archeological site. Two analytical techniques (attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (ATR-FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS) have been used to achieve these goals. SEM-EDS was especially useful for morphological investigation and the multielemental composition of the pottery and pigments, while FTIR provided information on the ceramic and clay composition. The results show similarities for both techniques and offer preliminary information regarding the clay composition and some potential sources of the raw material used for pottery manufacturing in the Eneolithic period. Cluster analysis using Ward Linkage method also correlated the clay sources with the analyzed painted pottery. Despite the limited numbers of sample, the archaeometric results indicate that there is an obvious link between the painted pottery belonging to Petresti culture and four of the selected clay sources from the Alba Iulia-Lumea Noua archeological site. Hence, some of the local clay sources may be considered to be the raw material for the Petresti pottery manufacturing.