Ethnoarchaeometric Study of the Traditional Cooking Ware Production Centre of Pabillonis (Sardinia): Investigating Raw Materials and Final Products M.A. Cau, G. Montana, D. Pagliarello, and E. Tsantini
1 Introduction Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology (Longacre 1991; Costin 2000) has been particularly useful, among other aims, for understanding all the stages and parameters involved in pottery production, such as raw materials selection or paste recipes used by the potters. Moreover, analysing modern pottery-making communities that exploit their natural resources can provide an insight into the raw materials available in the area that could have also been used in the past. Ethnoarchaeological case studies were also used in order to test hypotheses in provenance studies (Arnold et al. 1991; Arnold et al. 2000). More recently, Buxeda i Garrigo´s et al. (2003) have proposed the term “ethnoarchaeometry” for this type of approach. Within the Late Roman Cooking Wares (LRCW) commercialised in the Western Mediterranean, some fabrics, such as Fabrics 1.2, 1.6/1.7 and 1.9 (Fulford and Peacock 1984), have been proposed to have a Sardinian origin (Fulford and Peacock 1984; Cau 2003; Cau et al. 2002). This aspect represented the motivation behind a specific project aimed at exploring the nature of cooking pottery on the
M.A. Cau (*) Institucio´ Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avanc¸ats (ICREA), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Italy and Equip de Recerca Arqueome`trica de la Universitat de Barcelona (ERAUB), Barcelona, Italy e-mail:
[email protected] G. Montana and D. Pagliarello Dipartimento di Chimica e Fisica della Terra (CFTA), Universita` di Palermo, Palermo, Italy e-mail:
[email protected] E. Tsantini Equip de Recerca Arqueome`trica de la Universitat de Barcelona (ERAUB), Barcelona, Italy I. Turbanti-Memmi (ed.), Proceedings of the 37th International Symposium on Archaeometry, 41 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-14678-7_6, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
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Fig. 1 Location of Pabillonis (Sardinia, Italy) and some images from Piras’ workshop
island and the raw clays, as well as the production technologies that have been traditionally used for their manufacture. Traditional cooking wares in Sardinia are relatively well recorded. In particular, the pottery making tradition of Pabillonis (Fig. 1) is known to be the most representative and diffused, and for this reason it was studied in great detail (Annis and Geertman 1987; Annis and Jacobs 1989/1990). Starting from this work, a field survey in the area of Pabillonis was undertaken in order to locate the raw materials used. Moreover, representative samples from final products were also collected in a traditional workshop. All the materials (clays and pots) were analysed in order to determine their chemical, petrographical and technological characteristics. The final aim was to reconstruct the paste recipe used by the local potters for cooking vessels. In addition, this approach can also provide a feedback related to the characteristics of the production to be used in the study of the LRCWs of alleged Sardinian origin.
2 Geological Sketch of the Area The territory of Pabillonis is part of the Campidano graben and is characterised by alluvial and colluvial deposits composed of gravels, silt and sandy clay (Holocene), together with Plio-Pleistocenic conglomerates, sand and mud deposits cropping out in river terraces and/or alluvial cones (Carmignani et al. 2001). The Flumini Malu River grinds detritic materials from the rocks which outcrop about 10 km to the east of the village of Pabillonis. These are sedimentary formations mainly consisting of polygenic continental conglomerates and sandstones with reddish clayey matrix; micaceous metasandstone and quartzites interbedded with phyllites and rare metaconglomerates. The detritic materials eroded by the Flumini Bellu belong for the most part to the Upper Carboniferous-Permian Plutonic Complex (outcropping
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west of Pabillonis). This is composed of granodiorites, tonalites and cordieritebearing granitoid rocks. Micaceous materials (Middle Cambrian–Lower Ordovician) are also ground down, especially near the village of Guspini. The OligoceneMiocene calc-alkaline volcanic cycle (Monte Arcuentu), mainly consisting of andesites, andesitic basalts and latites, is simply skimmed over by the Flumini Bellu. In contrast, the same deposits are deeply worn away by Rio Montevecchio, which flows alongside the Flumini Bellu (about 5 km to the north). The lava products of the Mount Arci volcanic complex (Pliocene-Pleistocene; mainly trachibasalts, basaltic andesites, trachytes, phonolitic trachytes, rhyolites and rhyodacites with perlitic structure, and obsidians) lie only to some extent in the drainage basin of a small tributary river (Rio Setti) which meets the Flumini Malu north-east of Pabillonis (approximately 2 km).
3 Materials and Methods A total of 25 sherds were collected in the workshop of G. Piras. All of the samples were broken and discarded fragments of pottery from the workshop and some showed signs of previous use. Except for three tile and brick sherds, the rest of the samples are typical casseroles from Piras’ workshop, with relatively thin walls and a lead glaze on the inner part of the vessel and partially on the external surface. The clayey materials collected near Pabillonis were indicated in some cases by G. Piras, the last traditional potter living in the area. He took us to Arrubius Campo, located about 1.5 km south-west of Pabillonis over the right bank of the Bellu River, where two samples were collected (labelled AC1 and AC2). Another sample (labelled PDC) originates from Domu Campu, a location used in the past for clay extraction, situated about 1 km west of the village. Clay was also collected from Morimenta Mogoro (samples labelled MRM) and Terramaini (labelled TRM), which are both located a few kilometres away from the village. All materials were characterised using a combination of techniques, including X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) for the chemical characterisation, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) for the bulk mineralogical composition, and thin-section analyses by optical microscopy (OM) for the petrographic characterisation. Moreover, raw clays were studied in terms of grain size distribution (granulometric analysis) and also in terms of mineralogical composition of clay-sized fraction (0.5 mm). The inclusions are mainly of very abundant angular and subangular quartz, frequent K-feldspars (sometimes altered to sericite), common to subordinated plagioclase (some of volcanic origin and with different degrees of alteration). Lithic fragments are common and they are mostly acidic crystalline fragments (granitoid rocks). Rare quarzarenite and quartz-siltite fragments with slightly metamorphosed iron oxide matrix are also present. Sporadic mica flakes, clinopyroxene and some volcanic fragments of andesite type are also visible. According to the XRD, OM and SEM results, the Equivalent Firing Temperature (EFT) ranges between 850 and 1,000 C. The mineralogical compositions detected by XRD on the studied pottery samples allowed us to infer different intervals of firing temperatures: (a) 800 C, (b) 850/900 C and (c) 950/1,000 C. Moreover, the observation performed by SEM revealed the development of a typical non-calcareous ceramic microstructure and confirmed the equivalent firing temperatures estimated by XRD. A fine structured lead glaze can be observed over the surface, with an irregular width oscillating between 0.1 and 0.15 mm (100–150 mm). Based on thin section and SEM observation, it seems clear that the lead glaze was applied to a previously fired body.
4.2
The Clays
From a chemical point of view, all the clays from the area of Pabillonis are low calcareous clays with relatively high K2O content (see Table in Fig. 2). The petrographic observations of the clay samples fired at 700 C show an abundance of monocrystalline and polycrystalline quartz in all samples. In general, the particles with size bigger than 0.25 mm are subrounded or even rounded (fluvial sand). K-feldspars, grains and fragments from granitoid and/or gneissic rocks, as well as low-grade metamorphites (argillites, micaceous metasiltites and metarenites) are common to sporadic. The frequency of amphibole, biotite and volcanic inclusions is even more sporadic, with only one exception, sample TRM, where clinopyroxene, geminated plagioclase, and rock fragments with vitrophyric texture are quite abundant.
5 Conclusions The ethnoarchaeometric study has allowed the characterisation of a reference group for the pottery from Piras’ workshop and its technology. The pottery corresponds to a highly standardised, low calcareous, mainly well-fired glazed ceramic production.
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Taking into consideration the analyses of the raw materials, potential sources for Pabillonis raw materials can be located in certain areas of the Quaternary alluvial sediments on the left side of the River Bellu. The clays from Terramaini (TRM) and Morimenta Mogoro (MRM) can be clearly excluded as potential raw material sources for the studied Pabillonis production. There are no compositional similarities between the Late Roman Cooking Wares of possible Sardinian provenance and the ceramic materials and clays of the area of Pabillonis. This negative result is important, as it allows the exclusion of this area as a potential source for the LRCWs under study in the framework of the current project. However, the results of chemical and petrographic comparisons between the Pabillonis products and Neolithic ceramic fabrics found at different locations within a 10 km radius of the site (Bertorino et al. 2000) show remarkable consistency. This aspect indicates the continuity of a local ceramic tradition over a wide chronological range. Acknowledgments We are grateful to the village of Pabillonis that hosted us very kindly. In particular, we would like to thank G. Piras and his family for sharing their knowledge with us, and the mayor of the village (Dott. Marco Dessı`) for his support. Special thanks are also due to Sara Santoro, co-director of the project, to the entire team working on the Sardinian materials, and to B. Annis and P. van Dommelen for their interest in our research. This research is part of the Spanish–Italian Action (HI2005-0067) funded by Ministerio de Educacio´n y Ciencia and MIUR and also of the project Poblamiento y cera´mica en las Islas Baleares durante la Antig€ uedad tardı´a: el caso de Mallorca (CERPOANTAR), HUM2005-0996/HIST, funded by Ministerio de Educacio´n y Ciencia, now Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacio´n, also with FEDER funding.
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