A PROVENANCE STUDY ON DIFFERENT RENAISSANCE CERAMIC PRODUCTIONS BASED ON XRD AND FT-IR SPECTROSCOPY

The attribution problem related to different ceramic productions represents a topic of great interest and generally an archaeometric approach is commonly used. In the framework of a more comprehensive study on lustred majolicas from Italian Renaissance [1,2], we looked at the possibility to distinguish two different kind of Italian productions in central Italy (Gubbio and Deruta, Umbria), on the base of the chemical and the mineralogical composition of the ceramic body [3]. A study was carried out on "second firing" shards characteristic of the two different production sites, in order to identify different features useful for a possible and unambiguous attribution. Chemometric techniques have been applied to XRD patterns and FT-IR spectra to exploit the potential of these methods in the provenance attribution. Furthermore, through a comparison with local clays, subjected to cooking, the production technology used by ancient potters was investigated. Differences in the use of the raw materials as well as in the firing temperature have been disclosed.