Micropaleontological contribution to the archaeometric study of ceramics from Caltagirone (Sicily)

This research deal with the role of microfossils for the ceramic paste characterization. This approach, so far rarely investigated in archaeometry, allowed to confirm the biostratigraphic position of the Monte San Giorgio clay, which was widely used in the past for the production of the Caltagirone (CT) ceramics. The micro and nanomorphological modifications and the geochemical changes of foraminifera tests engulfed in ceramics enabled to assess the firing temperatures. The research was developed in two phases. A systematic and biostratigraphic study on the planktonic foraminifera and nannofossils has been performed in the first phase, which permitted to recognize the age of the clayey sediment used as raw material. The second phase was focused on micromorphological and geochemical analyses performed on the experimental ceramic made with the clay of Monte San Giorgio. Different known firing conditions, according to the ancient techniques, were adopted to made the experimental samples. They were compared with the ceramic fragments, furnished by the Ceramics Regional Museum “Antonino Ragona” of Caltagirone, in order to validate our approach on unknown archaeological material. The micropaleontological study for archaeometric analyses seems to be useful in the evaluation of firing processes and sometimes decisive in distinguishing the typical features of the clay used in a given production.