Le anfore fenicio-puniche prodotte nel Mediterraneo occidentale: caratteristiche petrografiche degli impasti siciliani e spagnoli.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide well-stated petrographic reference groups for the recognition of several Sicilian and Spanish Phoenician-Punic production centres in order to facilitate an instrument of further objective support for amphorae provenance. This instrument is based on the crosschecking between data provided by typological studies and the thinsection analysis of amphorae fabrics. It is worth noting that this is only a first step within the framework of a larger research project focused in the creation of an Atlas of Phoenician and Punic Amphorae in the Western Mediterranean including both archaeological and petrographic data. In this context a systematical work on the known production centres characterizing fabrics, pastes and raw materials is the proper way to define workshops and their manufactures and to study their technological choices. Thus we shall give primarily references to well-define workshops as Mozya and Solunto in Sicily and Cadiz and Ebussus in Spain. However, some other petrographic data not obtained from the above cited workshops are also included. In those cases, the reference fabric has to be taken only as a general trend on the petrographic features of a certain large compositional space.