Petrographic Analysis of Ceramics from Umbro Greek, Southern Calabria, Italy

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Here we present the first results of petrographic analysis on ceramic sherds from Umbro Greek archaeological site, a Classical period farmhouse in Southern Calabria, Italy, dating from the 5th to 4th centuries BCE. The site is located on the Umbro plateau, halfway between the Ionian Sea and the Aspromonte Massif, an area extensively researched by the Bova Marina Archaeological Project over the last twenty years. Michelaki et al. (2012) completed comprehensive petrographic and chemical analyses on sediments within a radius of approximately 4 km around Umbro Greek and identified three distinct geological units with clays suitable for ceramic production. The Classical period sherds examined for this project were made of local clays as well as clays of unknown provenience, indicating that the farmhouse occupants interacted with people from other regions. Comparatively, ceramics from two Early to Middle Neolithic sites were made exclusively of local clays (Michelaki et al. 2015): Umbro Neolithic, a rock shelter, and Penitenzeria, a small open-air terrace, each date to the 6th century BCE and are within a half-km of Umbro Greek.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23526