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Kent Academic Repository Full text document (pdf) Citation for published version Worthing, M.A. and Laurence, Ray and Bosworth, L. (2018) Trajan's Forum (Hemicycle) and Via Biberatica (Trajan's Markets): An HHpXRF Study of the Provenance of Lava Paving in Ancient Rome (Italy). Archaeometry . ISSN 0003-813X. DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12374 Link to record in KAR http://kar.kent.ac.uk/65583/ Document Version Author's Accepted Manuscript Copyright & reuse Content in the Kent Academic Repository is made available for research purposes. Unless otherwise stated all content is protected by copyright and in the absence of an open licence (eg Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher, author or other copyright holder. Versions of research The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record. Enquiries For any further enquiries regarding the licence status of this document, please contact: [email protected] If you believe this document infringes copyright then please contact the KAR admin team with the take-down information provided at http://kar.kent.ac.uk/contact.html Archaeometry Page 2 of 20 1 2 3 Trajan‘s Forum (Hemicycle) and Via Biberatica (Trajan‘s 4 5 Markets): An HHpX F Study of the Provenance of Lava 6 Paving in Ancient ome (Italy). 7 8 1 2 1 9 M.A. Worthing, . Laurence, L. Bos.orth 10 11 12 Abstract 13 14 The paper reports on geochemical data collected using a He-enabled Hand-Held 15 portable XRF (HHpXRF) from lava paving stones in Trajan‘s arkets and Trajan‘s 16 Forum (Rome). Issues relating to HHpXRF field use and calibration are also addressed 17 in detail. Using this instrument 355 analyses of the paving stones were collected and the 18 data was processedFor using Peer the standard Review techni)ues of igneous petrology and 19 petrography. Provenancing was based on comparisons between the HHpXRF data and 20 21 geological data from the abundant literature on Roman volcanic rocks. These 22 comparisons placed the provenance of the paving stones in the Alban Hills, southeast of 23 Rome. Evidence is also presented pointing to possible source lava flows within the 24 Alban Hills .omple/. The study establishes the potential of HHpXRF e)uipment for 25 non-destructive analysis of paving stones both in Rome and at other sites in central 26 Italy and challenges a number of assumptions about the supply of building materials to 27 Rome based on intuition alone. 28 29 Introduction 30 31 32 Rome‘s hinterland, the middle and lower Tiber valley, is underlain by a variety of 33 geological lithologies many of which were )uarried in anti)uity for construction 34 projects. 0est of the river, lavas and pyroclastic rocks predominate whereas to east of 35 the river, limestone, sandstones and conglomerate are the main rock types. These 36 lithologies were generically known as 1silex‘ in anti)uity (2aurence 1333). However, 37 the grey to black volcanic lavas, known as 1selce‘ in the archaeological literature were 38 39 the preferred rock type for paving in Rome and the roads of central Italy (2aurence 40 1333, 2004, 7lack et al 2004). Intuitively it might be e/pected that a heavy material 41 such as lava would be )uarried from local sources. However .apedri and 8randi (2003) 42 presented lab-based XRF data suggesting that selce was transported up to 30 km to 43 construction sites in the Po Plain from sources in the Euganean Hills. 7ut, in general 44 sourcing of paving stones in the archaeological literature has continued to be based on 45 intuition rather than hard data (e.g. De2aine 1337). 46 47 However, HHpXRF now provides a means of replacing these assumptions with hard 48 49 data but few actual scientific studies have been undertaken. For e/ample, Frahm and 50 Doonan (2013) found that only 43% of archaeological papers using so called pXRF 51 machines used handheld instruments (HHpXRF). These statistics are surprising 52 particularly when considered against their use in other field based sciences such as the 53 Earth Sciences (73%) and Environmental Testing (73%). ore than four fifths of 54 handheld pXRF analysis in archaeology is done in the laboratory and only 3% at an on- 55 56 1 57 Department of .lassical and Archaeological Studies, University of Kent, UK 58 2 Department of Ancient History, ac)uarie University, Australia 59 60 1 Page 3 of 20 Archaeometry 1 2 3 site laboratory and only 15% at an actual e/cavation. They attribute this partially to 4 scepticism about the analytical performance of HHpXRF machines. In this paper, we 5 have compared our HHpXRF analyses with lab-based XRF analyses of lava flows from 6 the Alban Hills, Sabatini and Vico volcanoes taken from the geological literature. One 7 of the advantages of this approach is that the geological data provides a reference 8 9 standard against which the performance of the Niton HHpXRF can be assessed. This 10 approach has also been enhanced by technological improvements, particularly in the 11 development of He enabled machines, which permit the collection of a wider range of 12 elements (compare 0orthing et al 2017). The paper makes a contribution to developing 13 a scientific basis for the provenancing of the lava paving from a major monumental 14 comple/ in ancient Rome and the implications for the supply of building materials. 15 16 17 /eological Background 18 For Peer Review 19 The present day geological and physiographic framework of the Italian peninsula is a 20 conse)uence of movements associated with the evolving Apennine Orogenic 7elt 21 (.onticelli et al. 2010a, Alagna et al. 2010). These movements began in the Eocene 22 with convergence and westward subduction of Adriatic lithosphere beneath the 23 southern European margin. This was followed by iocene subduction related 24 magmatism along the Italian peninsula which has continued to the present day. These 25 magmatic rocks have been assigned to three magmatic provincesA from north to south, 26 27 the Tuscan agmatic Province (T P), the Roman agmatic Province (R P) and the 28 2ucanian agmatic Province (2 P). In this paper we will only consider the R P 29 which comprises four volcanic comple/es: Vulsini, Vico, Sabatini and the Alban Hills. 30 These volcanoes lie along the border of the Tyrrhenian Sea between southern Tuscany 31 and the south eastern hinterland of the city of Rome. In this paper three volcanoes of 32 the R P will be discussed: from north to south they are Vico, Sabatini and the Alban 33 Hills but the main focus will be on the latter (Fig. 1). 34 35 Vico, Sabatini and the Alban Hills are all characterised by large polycentric stratiform 36 comple/es with polygenetic calderas (Fig.1). Their eruptive products are dominated by 37 38 voluminous e/plosive pyroclastic rocks such as ignimbrites and tuffs. 2ava flows are 39 subordinate. 8eochemically these products are characterised by high levels of 2I2E 40 (2arge Ion 2ithophile Elements) such as K, Rb, Sr, 7a and Pb relative to HFSE (High 41 Field Strength Elements) such as Nb, Cr and Ti (e.g. .onticelli et al. 2010a, Alagna et 42 al. 2010, 8aeta et al. 201D). The relative abundance of potassium and the 43 undersaturation with respect to SiO2 gave rise to the common occurrence of the potassic 44 feldspathoid leucite. Te/turally the lavas range from aphyric to strongly porphyritic with 45 leucite, clinopyroxene, plagioclase and olivine as common phenocryst phases. 46 8eochemical classification of these rocks has divided them into two suitesA a potassic 47 suite consisting of trachybasalts and trachytes and an ultrapotassic suite consisting of 48 foidites, leucitites, leucite tephrites and phonolites (Alagna et al. 2010). 49 50 51 The Alban Hills 52 53 This volcanic comple/ lies 15km southeast from the centre of Rome and much of the 54 city is built on its eruptive products (Fig.1). Activity was dominated in the early phases 55 by polygenetic caldera collapse and the eruption of voluminous e/plosive products such 56 as ignimbrites and tuffs some of which are interbedded with coeval tuffs from Sabatini 57 (.onticelli et al. 2010a, 8aeta et al 201D). 2ava flows are subordinate and the volume 58 59 60 2 Archaeometry Page 4 of 20 1 2 3 of eruptive products decreased with time. In this paper we have adopted the 4 terminology of 8aeta et al. (201D) to describe the magmatic phases of the volcano. 5 They are an Early Tuscalano-Artemisio Phase (D0E F 500 ka), a 2ate Tuscalano- 6 Artemisio Phase (45D - 351 ka), the onte Delle Faete Phase (30E F 241 ka), a 2ate 7 Hydromagmatic Phase (201 F 142 ka) and finally the Albano Phase (D3 F 40 ka). 8 9 10 Of particular interest to this paper are lava flows of the onte Delle Faete Phase (Fig. 11 1). The 2ate Tuscalano-Artemisio Phase (Fig. 1) also hosts significant lava flows 12 including the Villa Senni lavas and the lavas of the PoGGolane Rosse which were 13 erupted on the Vallerano lava plateau (Fig.1). Similarly, the onte due Torri flow of 14 the Albano Phase is the most recent lava erupted from the Alban Hills and was dated at 15 40 ka (8aeta et al. 2011). These lavas are all possible sources for some of the paving 16 stones documented in this paper.