Provenance and first technological insights of African amphorae from the Roman Forum of Cumae, Southern Italy

The aim of this work is to define the provenance and the production technology of nineteen samples of African Amphorae found in the forum of the ancient Cumae in the Bay of Naples. These materials were used to transport goods from the North Africa, where several regions were involved in the amphora production, including the Zeugitania and Byzacena (S Tunisia), Tripolitania (S Tunisia/W Libya), and Mauretania Caesarensis (between Morocco and Algeria). The archaeometric investigation was performed via mineralogical-petrographic techniques. Polarized light microscopy (PLM) highlights two different groups of samples and some outliers according to their petrographic composition, which shows affinity with the geological features of the supposed area of production. X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) revealed that quartz is the prevalent mineralogical phase along with calcite, feldspar, hematite, sporadic mica, and neoformed Ca-silicates that provided useful information about the EFTs (Equivalent Firing Temperatures) estimation. Confirmed by the FESEM analysis as well. The chemical analysis via X-ray fluorescence (XRF) shows that most samples have a high concentration of CaO (>6 wt.%) and comparison with literature data show that they are linked to the Tunisian area. Thanks to the comparison with reference data of archaeological samples from North African productive centers (such as kiln refuses, large number of fragments of the same ceramic class, mainly from the Tunisian coasts) and local geological features, each group of samples can be ascribed to a specific atelier.