Archaeometric study of black-coated pottery from Pompeii by different analytical techniques.

Complementary spectroscopic methods were used to characterize ceramic body and black coating of finepottery found at Pompeii (Italy). This has enabled us to investigate local productions and to clarify thetechnological changes over the 4th–1st centuries BC. Two different groups of ceramics were originallydistinguished on the basis of macroscopic observations. Optical microscopy (OM), X-ray diffraction(XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) seem to indicate the usage of the same raw materials for the productionof black-coated ceramics at Pompeii for about three centuries. Raman microscopy (RM) and microanalysis(SEM/EDS) suggest different production treatments for both raw material processing and firingpractice (duration of the reducing step and the cooling rate).