Compositional study of mortars and pigments from the “Mosaico della Sala dei Draghi e dei Delfini” in the archaeological site of Kaulonía (Southern Calabria, Magna Graecia, Italy)

This work focuses on the archaeometric study of mortars and pigments coming from the “Mosaico della Sala dei Draghi e dei Delfini”, the oldest and most complex Hellenistic mosaic of the Magna Graecia, located in the Hellenistic baths of the archaeological site of Kaulonía (Southern Calabria, Italy). From this mosaic, mortar samples belonging to different stratigraphic sequences and coloured filling mortars were analyzed through polarized optical microscopy (OM), microanalysis scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and Raman spectroscopy. To study the executive technique and the typology of pigments used in the mosaics of the Magna Graecia, it was considered another mosaic of Kaulonía: the “Mosaico della Casa del Drago”, the first polychrome mosaic discovered in the ancient city, which represents the figure of the dragon. From this last mosaic, one sample of painted surface lime was collected and compared with the coloured filling mortars of the Mosaico della Sala dei Draghi e dei Delfini. In addition, a sample of Jurassic limestone with red mineralizations, from the north of the city of Stilo, was sampled to study the provenance of the pigments used. To this day, research has not yet focused on the compositional study of the Hellenistic mosaics of Kaulonía. For this reason, this work wants to give, for the first time, information about the executive techniques of these mosaics and the composition of mortars and pigments, increasing the knowledge on the production technology of the mosaic in the Hellenistic period and, in particular, in the archaeological site of Kaulonía.