New insights on the Western production of Ionian cups type B2

Abstract

Ionian cups are a ceramic class widely spread in the Mediterranean basin from the second half of the VII century BCE and even more throughout the VI century and a little beyond. Initially imported from Eastern Greece, they were successively produced also in the West, in the colonies and in the indigenous hinterland.

This research is a recent development of a study started about a decade ago aimed at identifying the production area of Ionian cups type B2 found in various archaeological contexts in central-eastern Sicily (Italy). Here we focus on 30 items from Gela, a Greek colony located along the southern coast of Sicily, where cups of type B2 and their variants exceed 600 specimens. Mineralogical-petrographic and chemical investigations have been performed through polarized optical microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) aiming at: i) assessing if the examined findings were locally manufactured; or ii) if, on the contrary, they can be considered imports in Gela from another specialized production site or area.

Results revealed three different petro-chemical groups corresponding to as many provenance areas. Specifically, the main group, including most of the examined samples, display characteristics similar to those of Ionian cups from the other investigated Sicilian sites whose workshops could be located in the Strait of Messina area. Conversely, a small group of samples can be attributed to a local production, while another minor group indicates a Greek provenance.