PRELIMINARY MULTIDIAGNOSTIC CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF WALL PAINTINGS FROM A CUMAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE

The wall paintings analyzed have been found in two archaeological contexts, situated in the southwestern area of the Forum of Cuma. The first context concerns the so-called “Tempio con Portico”; the construction of this temple has been in the Julio-Claudian age. The second context is the housing district, inhabited between the end of the III century b.C. to the IV century AD; the levels of abandonment of this architectural complex contain plasters attributable at the first pompeian style. The wall paintings of this site have been investigated using a mutimethodological approach. The chemical composition of the pale and dark red pigments and plasters have been studied via Raman microscopy (using a 647 nm excitation). The binder components have been analyzed by a proteomic approach (LC-MS\MS following an enzymatic digestion in heterogeneous phase), as previously performed. Ultimately, a combination of destructive (MS) and non-destructive (Raman) techniques allowed an overall picture of the components and technology of the painting. A comparison between our results and other in literature on paintings has been presented. Particularly, our Cuman samples exhibit a peculiar carbonate composition, and no proteinaceous material was found in the binder.