Scientific investigations on Byzantine pottery from Castellum 22, Romania

Abstract

Forty five ceramic shards discovered in archaeological excavations at Castellum 22 site, Constanţa County, southeastern Romania, and dated to the 10th–11th centuries AD, were subjected to scientific investigations in order to get clues about the raw materials and manufacturing techniques employed by the potters from the Lower Danube zone at the end of the 1st millennium AD.The analyzed shards were selected according to archaeological criteria. The characteristics of the fabric, such as texture, porosity and microstructure, as well as the surface treatments and firing conditions, were studied using Optical Microscopy (OM).Chemical composition was determined using Particle-Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) technique at AN2000 accelerator of LNL, INFN, Italy. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the PIXE data for the ceramic bodies highlighted two main groups of shards with distinct compositional signatures.Micro-PIXE maps of the interfaces between the olive green or yellow glaze and the underlying ceramic body indicated that the decorative layers are strongly enriched in lead.The results of these investigations were compared to the ones previously obtained on coeval pottery from other archaeological sites, such as Hârşova, Oltina, Păcuiul lui Soare, and Valu lui Traian, in a trial to get some insights about the life and customs of the people from the Lower Danube region during the Byzantine period.