Significance: As a high-value luxury commodity, wine has been transported across the Mediterranean since the Bronze Age. The wine trade was potentially disrupted during political and religious change brought about by Islamization in the Early Medieval period; wine consumption is prohibited in Islamic scripture. Utilizing a quantitative criterion based on the relative amounts of two fruit acids in transport amphorae, we show that wine was exported from Sicily beyond the arrival of Islam in the ninth century, including to Christian regions of the central Mediterranean. This finding is significant for understanding how regime change affected trade in the Middle Ages. We also outline a robust analytical approach for detecting wine in archaeological ceramics that will be useful elucidating viniculture more broadly.

Following the monograph published in 2004 by H. Slim, P. Trousset, R. Paskoff and A. Oueslati, Le littoral de la Tunisie (Coll. Études d'Antiquités africaines), this study presents the pottery collected on the 210 settlements registered during the 1987- 1997 coastal survey of Tunisia. This study comprises four chapters : I. Antic pottery (M. Bonifay) provides some information about chronology of the settlements, regional typology and economic activities. II. Physicochemical analysis (M. Picon) testify the importation in Tunisia of Gaulish wares from Savoy. III. Petrology (Cl. Capelli) permits to caractérise several amphoras workshops along the Tunisian coastline. IV. Islamic pottery (L. Vallauri) gives some precision about vessels production and importation in Ifriqiya from 9th to XVIIIth c.

Cet article constitue le deuxième volet de la publication préliminaire des fouilles des Thermes du Levant à Leptis Magna menées par la Mission archéologique française en Libye depuis 1994. En vue de contribuer à l’établissement d’une échelle chronologique de la céramique romaine en Tripolitaine (I), quatre contextes céramiques datés respectivement des années 250-260, 290-310, 350-360 et 400 sont présentés en détail et leur chronologie discutée (II). L’étude conjointe, archéologique et archéométrique, de cette documentation permet de progresser dans la définition des principales classes de céramiques importées (amphores siciliennes et orientales) et produites régionalement (amphores, sigillées tripolitaines, céramiques culinaires) (III). Enfin, cette étude apporte quelques nouvelles données sur l’économie de la ville des IIIe et IVe s. (IV) et sur la chronologie générale du site (V).

This paper presents the preliminary results of a research on some types of early African amphorae found in the excavation of Nuovo Mercato Testaccio in Rome. In particular, we will show the data coming from the petrographic analysis of the so called “ Ancient Tripolitanian” amphorae carried out in order to improve the knowledge of their typology definition and origin, still under discussion.

Hexagonal neo-formed crystallites have been observed in thin section of different medieval and post-medieval lead-glazed ceramics. Although they are clearly visible in thin section using plane polarized light, their plate shape makes them barely seen on the polished cross sections. Basal sections have never been found on the polished sections and only few transversal very thin sections could be seen. In this case, the morphology resembles acicular and it is not possible to analyze them properly by SEM–EDX because the crystals are very thin and the glaze surrounding is analyzed as well. Micro-Raman microscopy was carried out directly on the polished thin sections. This technique allows specific areas as small as 1 μm in diameter to be analyzed and it is able to characterize inclusions that are not found on the glaze surface. However, the wavenumber features observed cannot be assigned to a specific compound. The thickness of the crystallites (a few hundred nanometers) seems to be responsible for the low sensitivity of the Raman instrumentation. 15 × 15 μm² micro-X-ray diffraction patterns using synchrotron radiation (SR-μXRD) in transmission geometry were obtained from the crystals using the same thin section preparation. SR-μXRD was able to localize the crystallites and avoid the overlapping signals corresponding to other mineral phases. In this way, the hexagonal crystallites present in the glaze have been unambiguously identified as hematite crystallites. Finally, some replications were made under laboratory-controlled conditions to determine the firing conditions in the formation of those crystallites. The presence of hematite coexisting with melanotekite indicates a firing temperature 925°C