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Selinunte (Sicily) and its productive context: the clayey raw materials applied in a long-lived ceramic production (seventh to third century BCE)

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Abstract

The westernmost of the Greek-Sicilian towns, Selinunte, founded in western Sicily during the second half of the seventh century BCE, gives amazing evidences of a historic activity of ceramic production (seventh to third century BCE). The present study aims to identify the raw materials available in the vicinity of the archaeological site of Selinunte, which were possibly used by the ancient potters, and to characterise them by means of petrographic and chemical techniques. A sampling campaign of clays and sands for tempering was undertaken in the archaeological site and the adjacent area. Moreover, locally produced archaeological bricks and tiles were considered helpful for comparison regarding the definition of local ceramic macro- and micro-fabrics and were analysed as well. The comparison between textural, mineralogical and chemical data allowed us to highlight a good similarity between the clayey materials available in the area and the local ancient bricks and tiles. Their compositional resemblance suggests the hypothesis of a systematic use of the studied clays for ceramic productions from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. The preliminary archaeometric results obtained so far could enhance the distinction between local manufactures and imports and may well lead to the identification of ceramic artefacts produced by the Archaic-Hellenistic workshops of Selinunte at various consumption sites.

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Acknowledgments

We are greatly indebted to Dr. Caterina Greco, the then director of the ‘Parco Archeologico di Selinunte e Cave di Cusa Vincenzo Tusa’, for the generous sampling permission and her general availability regarding our research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e del Mare (DiSTeM), Università degli Studi di Palermo, Via Archirafi, 22, 90123, Palermo, Italy

    Giuseppe Montana, A. M. Polito & L. Randazzo

  2. Institut für Klassische Archäologie, Universität Wien, Wien, Austria

    B. Bechtold

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  1. Giuseppe Montana
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  2. B. Bechtold
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  3. A. M. Polito
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  4. L. Randazzo
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Correspondence to Giuseppe Montana.

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Montana, G., Bechtold, B., Polito, A.M. et al. Selinunte (Sicily) and its productive context: the clayey raw materials applied in a long-lived ceramic production (seventh to third century BCE). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 10, 657–673 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-016-0381-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-016-0381-5

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