Antonio Strafella

A set of Bronze Age amber beads from two different sites in northern Italy was studied by optical microscopy, digital microscopy for high-resolution 3D imagery, environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) and high resolution silicone casts of the perforation holes. The casts demonstrate the use of a red-hot punch for perforating beads, in spite of the erasure caused by the string’s friction on the walls of the inner holes. We also report the find, within the perforation of one of the studied beads, of a cord fragment made of twisted vegetal fibres, and discuss the problems of its identification.

This paper presents in an analytical way the results of the study conducted on the amber findings of the embanked site of Fondo Paviani, found during the investigations conduct¬ed by the University of Padua between 2007 and 2012. This study wants to link three aspects: archaeological, archaeometric – linked to the determination of provenance – and paleo-technological aspects, the latter, in particular, aimed at reconstructing the manufacturing techniques and the use-wear traces. The materials, for the most part coming from reliable stratigraphic con¬texts dated to RB2, are five elements of necklaces, a button and a small raw nodule. The study was carried out according to the following steps: 1) functional and typological contextualization of the pieces; 2) chronological contextualization of the finds on the basis of the stratigraphic context and the comparison with other contexts located in the Po Valley; 3) Diffuse Reflectance In-frared Spectroscopy analysis (DRIFT) of micro-samples were performed in order to identify the origin of the raw material the analysis demonstrated that in all the samples it was Baltic amber; 4) analysis of manufacturing traces in order to reconstruct the manufacturing techniques, and part of the operational sequence, and analysis of the use-wear traces to reconstruct the pattern of use, through: a) preliminary observation of the finds through optical microscopy and macro-photographic documentation; b) a detailed analysis of specific points of the elements of necklaces through ESEM; c) graphic documentation of each artefact in 5:1 scale, morphological characteristics were rendered through different graphic traits and precise patterns for the manufacturing and use-wear traces; d) the development of siliconic micro-casts of the perforation holes and their subsequent micro-morpho¬logical observation using Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM).