Late Antiquity Roman ceramics from archeological excavations in Faenza (Italy)

Between the end of the year 1994 and the beginning of 1995, two excavations inside two palaces of the eighteenth century in the historical center of Faenza (Italy) were completed. A continuity of use was revealed from the Republican age to the late Antiquity, when Faenza was positively affected by the vicinity of Ravenna, the new capital of the Roman Empire. The Late Antiquity ceramic material recovered in the two palaces can be macroscopically subdivided into two groups depending on the paste characteristics: fine ceramics and coarse ceramics. Thirty samples were selected to undergo archaeometric investigations aimed at their characterization from the microstructural, mineralogical and chemical point of view. All fine ceramics are very similar among them with a chemical composition rich of calcium oxide (around 15-16% CaO), obviously deriving from the use of highly carbonatic clays. These Roman ceramics would be a local production by using local clays without any treatment. This conclusion permits to evidence that already in the 5th century in Faenza there were workshops able to realize a valid ceramic production by using the local Plio-Pleistocenic clays that will bring much luck to the Faentine potters many centuries later. Likely, this means that the local clays were continuously used for at least fifteen centuries. Coarse ceramics contain 25-30% of a skeleton constituted by grains with dimensions generally in the range 300-500 mu m with a hiatal distribution. Two groups can be individuated based on the nature of the inclusions: silicate rock fragments or spathic calcite. They were probably imported from two different productive areas; the one with silicate inclusions could be from the Po valley, while a provenance from north-eastern Italy can be hypothesized for coarse ceramics with inclusions of spathic calcite. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.