Daniela Cottica

This paper illustrates some details of a system of vats devoted to the maceration of Cannabis sativa in Roman Aquileia, located along the eastern bank of the fluvial port. It represents the first complex of this kind documented in the Roman world and offers the opportunity to rethink about the extend and impact of cultivation, processing and trade of hemp and its derivates in Roman society. Moving from the findings recently brought into light at Aquileia, the authors believe that research on hemp production chain and exploitation can greatly benefit from a transdisciplinary approach. The latter should balance the limits posed by the scarcity of present archaeological evidence on this subject, with information gathered by a systematic survey of literary and epigraphic sources, archaeobotanical, paleopalynological and ethnographic data. This is the research line pursued by the authors and thereafter briefly illustrated.

The evolution of patterns of trade between Italy and Gaul shows that the processes of Hellenization, and Romanization thereafter, took place in a non-homogeneous way for different reasons that we will try to understand. These reasons seem to vary depending on the areas taken into account. The study of black gloss ware from the south of France contributes to the understanding of dynamics of commercial exchange and cultural interaction in the Hellenistic-Roman period, between the coasts of the Italic peninsula and those of the Gulf of Lion (the Latin Sinus Gallicus) in western Mediterranean. The more or less conspicuous presence of black gloss ware, together with Italic amphorae, at different coastal sites as well as at inland sites of the Gallic Isthmus (in the various departments of the Midi-Pyrénées and Aquitania), attests to the processes and dynamics of acculturation, integration, or resistance and cultural denial, among the various peoples of this period and region (Greeks, Celts, Romans, Aquitans, Iberi). The focus of our attention will be on the black gloss ware produced in ancient Italy (as we will see especially in central Italy) and imported to, and sometime imitated in, the Gallic regions. Data derive from published sites, as well as some unpublished ones. Through the analysis of the presence and distribution of these ceramics, we will try to contribute to the understanding of appearance and patterns of distribution of these vessels from the Gulf of Lion to Aquitaine, during a chronological period spanning from the 3rd to the 1st centuries B. C.

!e contribution illustrates preliminary results of an interdisciplinary project of conservation and analysis of an exceptional group of Dressel 21-22 found by A. Maiuri in 1960 in the so called “Garum Shop” (I 12, 8) at Pompeii and left in situ since then. About 81 vessels were pile up in three overlapping layers. All amphorae were manufactured in central and southern Italy: interestingly the majority of them (85, 2%) can be attributed to Botte Type 2, originating in the Calabria region. Several vessels still retained visible archaeozoological traces of their content (mainly Engraulis encrasicolus) and tituli picti. !e latter o"er a whole set of information regarding their content, its quality and quantity, together with names of agents involved in the trading process and network. Information are painted in rubrum and organized according to a standard format, comprising seven di"erent sections (A-G). Each section is analysed and discussed with a particular focus on content and trade agents. Parole chiave: Bottega del garum (I 12, 8), tituli picti, Dressel 21-22, pesce sotto sale, salse di pesce Keywords: Garum Shop (I 12, 8), tituli picti, Dressel 21-22, salted #sh, #sh-sauces

Il contributo affronta la questione della diffusione delle ceramiche a vernice nera nel sud della Francia, con particolare attenzione per la diffusione in queste regioni di ceramica a «pasta chiara» non attribuibili alla produzione comunemente denominata Campana A, a sua volta riconducibile alle, pur diversificate, produzioni della Baia di Napoli. A partire da alcuni studi recenti sulla produzione di ceramica a vernice nera in area vesuviana e più in generale campana, che hanno evidenziato la presenza in Campania di una pluralità di centri di produzione di questa classe ceramica, è iniziata una revisione dei dati relativi alle esportazioni di ceramica a vernice nera dalla Campania verso le Gallie. Questi ultimi evidenziano la presenza di ceramiche a vernice nera non riconducibili alla cosiddetta Campana A ma pur sempre di probabile produzione campana (sulla base delle informazioni edite) che necessitano di essere maggiormente indagate, anche attraverso mirati studi archeometrici, al fine di meglio precisare i centri campani fornitori di vasellame fine a vernice nera alle regioni galliche. Al contempo, dalla distribuzione dei dati quantitativi disponibili emerge un interessante quadro composito e diversificato della diffusione delle ceramiche a vernice nera nel Sud-Ovest della Francia.

<p>This paper illustrates recent results of ongoing projects carried out by D. Cottica in collaboration with several researchers, scholars and institutions, as detailed in the article. At Pompeii three different activities will be illustrated: the study of the ceramics from Ca' Foscari excavations in <i>Regio</i> V and VI, the ceramological and archaeometric analysis of the ceramics retrieved from 1980-81 stratigraphic excavations at the forum of Pompeii and the international project on "Exploitation of marine resources in the Vesuvian area". In the second section of the article, we present and discuss interim results of excavations and interdisciplinary study carried out at Aquileia along the eastern bank of the <i>Roman Natiso cum Turro</i>. Finally, in the third part, we illustrate preliminary results of the study of past society at ancient Verona, using the case of the cemetery of Piazza Corrubbio as a platform for integrating archaeological data with a palaeobiological approach.<br></p>

The fluvial harbour of Aquileia (Italy), one of the most important Roman trading centres in the Mediterranean, was abandoned after the city's destruction in 452 AD. The deserted harbour evolved into a swamp surrounded by a floodplain that has recorded the anthropogenic, environmental and climatic pressures that have occurred during the last 1500 years in the northern Adriatic. Focusing on the period since 500 AD, we here reconstruct the area's long-term ecosystem dynamics. We show that ecosystem dynamics mainly mirror the climate phases of the pre-industrial era. After the Roman era, anthropogenic activities (agriculture, pasture and fire activity) declined in scope and amplitude and are chronologically limited (from the late 7th to the early 13th centuries AD), acting as a background pressure on ecosystems. The main non-human impacts recorded by ecosystems correspond to the Late Antique Little Ice Age, defined by an average temperature anomaly of À2.04 ± 0.17 C, exceeding the Pre-industrial Little Ice Age by À1.26 ± 0.16 C in severity. The temperatures reconstructed for the Medieval Climate Anomaly are close to those recorded for the 20th century AD (average anomaly of 0.08 ± 0.15 C) but they differ from the 21st century AD, according to the CRUTEM4 data. Aquileia shows that ancient harbours are key areas to understand how climate and human societies have shaped northern Adriatic environments since the post-Roman period.

Scuola di Dottorato "Archimede" in Scienze Comunicazione e Tecnologie, Ciclo XXVI,a.a. 2013The following work focuses on the archaeometric characterization of different pottery classes found in Pompeii during the I.E. excavations in 1980-1981. These investigations, carried out in the western part of the Forum, during the installation of the electric cables (I.E.= impianto elettrico), revealed numerous useful materials for the reconstruction of the first stages of the city. The ceramic, is certainly the most attested material and its study, allows to obtain archaeological information on many aspects of the past, as chronology, trade and technology. The analyzed ceramics, were selected by three major groups: common ware, black-glaze pottery and votive material. The choice of the samples was not random, because these ceramics classes were widespread in everyday life and in the ancient Mediterranean trades. Archaeometric study aimed to investigate ceramic samples to obtain information related to tthe Pompeii production, its social organization and the possible exchanges of finished objects. The results allow us to reconstruct ancient trades, in which Pompeii was great protagonist. The common ware, including cooking ware (jars and pots) and plain ware (jars and bottles), is certainly the most attested production. The great variability of shapes and fabric, in particular for cooking ware, suggested a wide diffusion, in Pompeii, of products, not only of local production. The first part of the study involved the petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical characterization of local cooking ware and dated in a wide time span (IV-I century BC). The petrographic comparison between two groups, dating to IV-III century BC and II-I century BC, evidenced, the presence of same mineral phases and fragments of volcanic rocks, related to Somma-Vesuvius activity. The differences, between two groups, were related to higher content of the coarse fraction for younger products (II-I century BC), suggesting changes in the production technology. We could hypothesize the use of non-calcareous clay with the addition of temper for the production of the oldest ceramic and the employment of weathered volcanic deposits for the later typology. Technological differences related to firing temperatures, are also showed. The presence of micas and hematite, detected by XRD analysis, indicates firing temperatures ranging between 800-900°C for both groups (Riccardi et al., 1999 and Cultrone et al., 2001). A greater variability was found in the II-I century BC group in which the absence of micas, in some samples, allowed to indicate slightly higher temperatures. The second part of the research focused on the comparison of II-I century BC pottery with two coeval groups of pottery (called group c and group d), characterized by the same ceramic form but with a different fabric. The petrographic analysis distinguished a volcanic fabric for a group c and a granitic fabric for the group d. For the latter one, considering the different geological characteristics of the Campanian area, it’s possible to indicate as possible provenance area, Calabria and Sardinia. However further analysis are necessary to confirm these hypotheses. From the mineralogical point of view, group c showed a temper similar to the local group (group b). Plagioclase, sanidine, clinopyroxenes, amphibole, biotite and a large amount of volcanic rock fragments, were observed in both groups. The differences are related to the increased presence and variability of clinopyroxenes in the group b and on the contrary of higher content of sialic minerals (plagioclase, sanidine and quartz) in group c. In group b, the quartz was detected only by XRD analysis. On the basis of petrographic characteristics, it is not possible to exclude the local origin for the group c, while the different chemical composition detected by XRF analysis does not allow to advance other hypotheses. In general, the mineralogical association, plagioclase, sanidine and pyroxene, is very common in volcanic areas, both in the Campanian magmatic Province (Somma-Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei and Roccamonfina) and in the Roman co-magmatic Province (Vulsini, Vico and Sabatini) characterized by similar volcanism (KS and HKS). The Alban hills are excluded because the products do not contain plagioclase and sanidine (Gaeta et al., 2006). Anyway, the traditional comparison with local raw materials, to have indications of provenance, is particularly difficult and not very useful, considered the coarser fabric of the ceramics. Therefore micro-analysis on individual volcanic phases (clinopyroxenes), were performed on the pottery wares. This method was considered as a good discriminant tool in recent works (Comodi et al., 2006; De Rosa et al., 2007, Barone et al., 2010). The clinopyroxenes of the ceramics in groups b and c were compared with clinopyroxenes of igneous rocks of the Campanian volcanic districts (Somma-Vesuvius and Roccamonfina)…

The University of Venice Ca’ Foscari, in collaboration with the National Laboratories of Legnaro at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), launched last year a new research project focused on the analysis of archaeological ceramics from the sites of Pompei (southern Italy) and Hierapolis (western Turkey). The stratigraphic excavations in Pompei are led by A. Zaccaria Ruggiu (University of Venice Ca’ Foscari) since year 2000 and take place in Regio VI, insulae 14 (in the area of the House of Orpheus) and 7 (House of Apollo), officina lignaria, domus VI, 7, 7 and VI, 7, 26. The same team is carrying out excavations at Hierapolis (modern Pamukkale, Turkey) since 1989. Research at the site has been performed by the University of Venice as part of the activities undertaken by the Italian Archaeological Mission at Hierapolis, currently directed by F. D’Andria (University of Lecce). The team has been digging a large late antique residential complex in insula 104, comprising at ...

In this preliminary report are shown the results of the fourth archaeological campaign of the project «Fishing and garum in Pompeii and Herculaneum», coordinated by the University of Cadiz and the Università Ca’ Foscari of Venice, developed between October, 2011 and April, 2012. Other than the finding of new documents, graphical material and ar- chaeological pieces of the former excavations carried out in the Garum Shop (I, XII, 8), there have been finalized the archaeological activities of excavation in this building, by means of soundings in the front part (environments 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8) and in the rear part of the ha- lieutic complex (Environment 10), advancing in the functional interpretation of the spaces. We have been able to finish the study of the 78 italic amphorae located in the Environment 13 (Dressel 21-22 type), including their archaeological, epigraphical and icthyological study, and their preventive consolidation. The study of the pottery assemblages of the 2010 ca...

This paper presents a diagnostic group of Mid-Byzantine vessels from recent excavations at Hierapolis of Phrygia, modern Pamukkale. The ceramics are characterized by a coarse fabric, rich in iron, quartz and metamorphic lithic inclusions, and are often decorated with white painted bands, lines and ribbons. Thereafter, the morphology, chronology and archaeological context of the material are discussed in detail.