Coulometry for the detection of water content in archaeological findings

Abstract

In the present work, we performed coulometric measurements to detect the water content in archaeological pottery in order to get information on the manufacture technique. The samples under study were the so-called "Ionian Cups" coming from various archaeological sites in eastern Sicily (South-Italy). In particular, we tentatively achieved the estimation of firing temperatures of the archaeological samples by comparing the coulometric results with those obtained in the case of raw materials fired under controlled conditions. The results were in good agreement with those previously obtained on the same samples by Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS). It is worth underlying that for the first time, the detection of water content as revealed by this analytical technique was related to archaeometric issues.