Analysis of pottery from the Palatine Hills of Rome

During the past several summers the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma and the American Academy in Rome have carried out collaborative excavations on the late Roman complex located on the northeastern slope of the Palatine Hill. The late Roman complex is situated on the lower slopes of the area commonly known as Vigna Barberini, after its 17th century owners. Because this area, as well as most of the east slope of the Palatine, has never been systematically explored, it remains from an archaeological point of view essentially unknown. The overall aim of the excavations is to investigate layout, function, and occupational history of a mid-to-late imperial building complex located just southwest of the Arch of Constatine. Part of this international project is the chemical characterization of Roman fineware pottery from archaeological excavations on the site of the imperial palaces. Excavation has yielded more than 8 t of Late Roman and Early Medieval pottery (circa 3rd to 10th centuries A.D.). Many classes of pottery have already been classified by their provenance based on distribution patterns, but others require chemical characterization to separate similar clays. To that end routine neutron activation analysis (NAA) methods have been used to analyze {approximately}200 pieces of pottery.