Abstract:
This article presents the results of exploratory research at Troia in 2009, when questions about elemental identification in metalwork, decorated terracotta figurines and plaques, and painted wall and ceiling plaster were addressed with a Bruker Tracer IV portable X-ray fluorescence instrument. Artifacts sampled were found in excavations since 1988 across all parts of Ilion’s Greek, Roman and Byzantine phases. Principal research questions involved the value of elemental analysis for exposing details of manufacture and technique, for facilitating the dating of artifacts, and for distinguishing local products from imported ones. The data generated by this study also allows for preliminary comparison of Ilion’s corpus of metalwork against trends in the composition of ancient metalwork across the ancient Mediterranean and Near East.
Elemental identification of pigments on painted plaster included both wall and ceiling decoration from Hellenistic and Roman buildings at Ilion. Principal research questions involved the value of elemental analysis for revealing the ingredients in pigments used by the wall- and ceiling-painters, and for identifying variation in pigments across place and time in the topography of Ilion. Overall, results reveal the value of exploratory research for capturing and distilling data for similar classes of artifacts in the life of an ancient city, and for formulating questions for future research.