Iron Age textiles from Sasso di Furbara, Italy: Preliminary results of new scientific investigation

The paper presents preliminary results of a new analysis of textile assemblage from the Caolino necropolis at Sasso di Furbara (Cerveteri), Italy, which is one of the largest and most important Iron Age textile corpora known from Italy. The material was found in 1953 by construction workers in a wooden monoxile boat, interpreted as a cenotaph. The majority of the textiles are of exceptionally high quality both technically and aesthetically and illustrate a range in fineness and design. One of the textiles includes one of the oldest and most complex tablet weaves found in Italy. Another exceptional characteristic of many textile fragments from Sasso di Furbara is the fact that they preserve visible colour patterns, indicating the use of dyes. To date, 110 fragments survive, which were sandwiched between glass panels when the first conservation was carried out in the 1980s during the study of the material by Hubert Masurel, who published his findings in two articles differentiating the fragments into seven fabric groups, but no comprehensive catalogue of the material exists. In 2017, a new study of the Sasso di Furbara material was initiated involving conservation and full scientific investigation of the extant fragments, including structural analysis, radiocarbon dating, fibre identification, dye analysis and experimental reconstruction of the tablet weaves. The paper presents the new structural groups and results of dating and raw material analyses

Momenti di storia della giustizia. Materiali di un seminario

Il volume raccoglie i saggi elaborati da alcuni giovani studiosi in occasione dei seminari in tema di "Storia del diritto processuale e degli ordinamenti giudiziari" svoltisi presso la Facoltà di Giurisprudenza dell'Università degli Studi "Roma Tre" nell'anno accademico 2009-2010

Types and gesture. The jewellery of the Copper age in the Alps in a techno-typological study

This contribution aims to compare jewellery artefacts from some northern Italy archaeological sites, dated to different periods: the Copper age and Early Bronze age. Through a techno-typological and functional study that takes into account several morphometric, morphological and specific trace parameters (indicators of anthropic and/or wear activity), the methods, techniques and tools are reconstructed and compared. On one hand, with the typological analysis, jewellery has been looked at as a cultural marker allowing to gather information (raw material, forms, and measures) on different aspects of past life, such as style, territories, and traditions. On the other hand, with the technological analysis, interpretative hypotheses are proposed based on the comparison between production traces and experimental data, in order to reconstruct (in part or completely) manufacture procedures and fabrication techniques. Finally, a functional analysis enabled to distinguish wear traces from technological traces and to recognize if the object has been used or not

Ring-eye blue beads in Iron Age central Italy - Preliminary discussion of technology and possible trade connections

The Iron Age was a remarkable period in glass technology development and its spread across the Mediterranean. Communities that populated what is nowadays Central Italy underwent profound changes during this period forming more complex societies, developing proto-urban and urban centres, and incorporating into a wide trade network of the Mediterranean Sea and beyond. Glass objects in that small region are frequently found in burial sites dated to the first half of the first millennium BCE, with small blue beads with simple ring eyes being among the most abundant types. Fifty-six objects of this type (both whole beads and fragments) were studied with a non-invasive approach by means of Optical Microscopy, Fibre Optics Reflectance Spectroscopy, and portable X-ray Fluorescence spectroscopy. The analyses were conducted at the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia and at the Museo delle Civilt`a (both in Rome, Italy). Five samples from the main set were also analysed with a Scanning Electron Microscope coupled to an Energy Dispersive Spectrometer. The data gave preliminary information on the raw materials used to prepare the glass, the manufacturing techniques, and offered some hints to (tentatively) locate the region of provenance. In particular, the analyses established that the beads are soda-lime-silica glass and the source of cobalt, used as the blue colorant, could be an ore from Egypt. Within this general frame, a smaller group showed a different compositional pattern. These preliminary results contribute new knowledge for tracing exchange routes within the Mediterranean during the Iron Age

Raw materials for copper-coloured glass beads: a contribution to our knowledge of their circulation and production in iron age Italy

Several types of (mostly) blue-green glass beads from Iron-Age archaeological sites in Central Italy were studied using a range of spectroscopic techniques: portable X-Ray Fluorescence spectrometry, Fibre Optics Reflectance Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry, micro-Raman spectroscopy and Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. Complementary information was gathered from each technique and discussed in the frame of the archaeological typology of the objects. The systematic evaluation of the results allowed us to draw some conclusions on the raw materials employed for primary production and to highlight some provenance indicators in the glass. Some of the beads found in the Iron Age (IA) contexts were preliminarily attributed to the Final Bronze Age (FBA) production based on their typology, and the compositional data obtained in this work confirmed that they were low magnesium high potassium (LMHK) glass, typical of FBA in the Italian peninsula. Other beads were assigned to low magnesium glass (LMG) or high magnesium glass (HMG), thus giving further information on the fluxing agents employed in the Early Iron Age (EIA) and beyond. Colour variations among the beads reflected their chemical composition, with different bead typologies coloured in a specific way. In some instances, it was possible to establish different origins for the colouring raw materials. The provenance of the samples was difficult to place, but the chemical evidence suggested a subdivision within the raw glass used to produce the beads: for one set of samples, a local origin of the glass could be hypothesised, whereas several production sites in the Near East were suggested for most of the beads considered in this study. Some preliminary clues for the local working of imported glass were also highlighted for one typological group

Momenti di storia della giustizia. Materiali di un seminario

Il volume raccoglie i saggi elaborati da alcuni giovani studiosi in occasione dei seminari in tema di "Storia del diritto processuale e degli ordinamenti giudiziari" svoltisi presso la Facoltà di Giurisprudenza dell'Università degli Studi "Roma Tre" nell'anno accademico 2009-2010