FT-IR absorbance spectroscopy to study Sicilian proto-majolica pottery

The present work is addressed to the investigation of pottery fragments, coining from the archaeological excavation in Milazzo and Messina (Sicily, Southern Italy), in order to get information about their manufacture. The stylistic features of the shards led to assign the samples to the proto-majolica ceramic class and to date them back to XII-XIII century A.D. A detailed spectroscopic analysis, performed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) absorbance, provided the identification of the mineralogical composition of the samples and the revealed differences induced to hypothesize the existence of several workshops in the same area. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.