Mineralogical-Petrographic and Spectroscopic Investigations on Coarse Potteries and Transport Amphorae from Agrigento

In the present work, ten ceramic samples from the VI-V century B.C., found in the west area of the Temples Valley in Agrigento, were analysed by different experimental techniques, such as optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Inducted Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy (FT-IR). The simultaneous use of the above mentioned methods has allowed to unambiguously characterize the provenance of these ceramic findings. In order to be sure of their provenance, five ceramic samples, found in a medieval kiln in Agrigento (Sicily) and of sure Agrigentina production, were used for comparison as well along with some literature data. Mineralogical analysis has shown mainly quartz with traces of K-feldspar, muscovite, iron and titanium oxides, microfossils even in moulds, often filled with re-crystallized microcrystalline calcite, while presence of gehlenite and diopside, determined by the XRD analysis, indicated the firing temperature of the ceramic. Oxides content, obtained by XRF measurements, was found quite homogeneous in the analysed ceramic, as in the case of the Agrigentina kiln ceramic. Moreover, the values of Ni and Cr, observed by ICP/OES technique, confirmed that all the manufactures were of colonial production, indicating that they were not imported from Greece. By comparing our samples with the Agrigentina kiln samples, it was possible to state that the analysed ceramics were made of clayey-sandy materials present in the Agrigento area and one coming from a non-Agrigentina quarry.