The Roman Villa of Positano (Campania Region, Southern Italy): Plasters, Tiles And Geoarchaeological Reconstruction

Abstract

A Roman luxury villa (1st century BC) was discovered in the town of Positano, in the Sorrento peninsula (Campania region, southern Italy). Despite being more than 20 km away from Vesuvius, the villa was buried under almost overall 20 meters (total thickness) of pyclastic materials of the Plinian eruption of 79 AD, which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum towns. The exceptional level of conservation of this residential complex is due to the peculiar burial process, which determined the excellent state of preservation of both the fresco decorations (Fourth Style) and all other artefacts (masonries, plasters, tiles, furnishing remains, wooden elements, kitchenware, glazed oil lamps, bronze vessels and other metallic findings, etc.). This study presents the results of a multi-analytical archaeometric analysis of plasters, fresco pigments and roof tiles, aimed at identifying their mineralogical and petrographic nature and the provenance of raw materials. Constraints to the geoarchaeological landscape of the Positano area are also given. The analyzed plasters are mainly lime-based, usually with the addition of an aggregate. The anchoring layer is made by a volcanic component, characterized by clinopyroxene, alkali feldspar, garnet, amphibole, biotite and leucite crystals, together with a sedimentary component represented by carbonatic fragments, also with traces of microfossils. The features of plasters confirm the high degree of technological standardization of plasters in classical Roman age. Mineral pigments recognized by preliminary XRD are mainly iron-based for the ochers-red-crimson colors and copper-based for green-blues colors. In the roof tiles two kind of tempers are identified. In three samples a volcanic temper was identified, and represented by clinopyroxene, feldspar, garnet and leucite, whereas the temper of a fourth sample contained pumices with minor amounts of alkali feldspar, clinopyroxene and biotite. The raw materials are of local provenance (Somma-Vesuvius, Phlegraean Fields, Apennine limestones), and the microstructure of the materials are comparable with similar artefacts from Pompeii, Herculaneum and other Roman sites in Campania region. On the basis of geoarchaeological investigations, here reported, it is reasonable to think that there are other unearthed archaeological areas in Positano that will require further study to be properly known.