Relitti della Sicilia (metà III-I sec. a.C.): primi dati delle analisi archeometriche sulle anfore

This research aims at reconsidering the complex issue of trade routes in the Western Mediterranean sea in the Roman age. Within this subject, this essay focuses on some Sicilian shipwrecks (3rd-1st century B.C.) and their cargos (late Graeco-italic and Dressel 1 amphorae), which have been examined trough archaeological and archaeometric methods, in order to identify the possible area of provenance. This work presents the preliminary results of mineralogical analyses (thin section analysis under polarising microscope) on samples of amphorae from these shipwrecks. Mineralogical data are compared with groups of reference of ceramics from production contexts in the Tyrrhenian coastal area of the Central-Southern Italy (especially the area between Etruria and Campania). These reference groups have been established in the project Immensa Aequora (www.immensaaequora.org).