Looking like gold : chlorite and talc transformation in the golden slip ware production (Swat valley, North-Western Pakistan)
Maritan, Lara (Università di Padova. Dipartimento di Geoscienze)
Piovesan, Rebecca (Piovesan Consulting)
Dalconi, Maria Chiara (Università di Padova. Dipartimento di Geoscienze)
Rius, Jordi (Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona)
Crespi, Anna (Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona)
Vallcorba Valls, Oriol (ALBA Laboratori de Llum de Sincrotró)
Casas Duocastella, Lluís (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Geologia)
Vidale, M. (Università di Padova. Dipartimento di Beni Culturali)
Olivieri, Luca Maria (Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l'Oriente)

Date:	2018
Abstract:	The archaeometric study of the "golden slip" ware (second century BCE-fourth century CE) at the site of Barikot (Swat, north-western Pakistan) aimed to define its manufacturing technology and provenance of the raw materials used. For this reason, a multianalytical approach consisting of the microscopic, microstructural and mineralogical analysis of both the golden slip and the ceramic paste was adopted. The slip was found to be composed by platy minerals, microchemically identified as talc and chlorite; their intimate association indicated clearly that they derived from a chlorite-talc schist. This rock is geologically available near the site in the "green stones" lenses within the Mingora ophiolites outcropping in the Swat valley. Due to the use of this stone also for the production of stone tools, it cannot be excluded that the chlorite-talc schist used for the golden slip can be derived from manufacturing residues of the Gandharan sculptures. In order to constrain the firing production technology, laboratory replicas were produced using a locally collected clay and coating them with ground chlorite-talc schist. On the basis of the mineralogical association observed in both the slip and the ceramic paste and the thermodynamic stability of the pristine mineral phases, the golden slip pottery underwent firing under oxidising conditions in the temperature interval between 800 °C and 850 °C. The golden and shining looks of the slip were here interpreted as the result of the combined light reflectance of the platy structure of the talc-based coating and the uniform, bright red colour of the oxidized ceramic background.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MAT2015-67953-P Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2013-42167-P
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Chlorite ; Enstatite ; Experimental replicas ; Microstructure ; Mineralogy ; Synchrotron through-the-substrate microdiffraction ; Talc
Published in:	Minerals, Vol. 8, issue 5 (May 2018) , art. 200, ISSN 2075-163X

DOI: 10.3390/min8050200

12 p, 10.5 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > The ALBA Synchrotron
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles