Le terrecotte figurate rinvenute nelle ricerche subacquee di Michel Cassien a Nora: uno studio integrato tra archeologia e archeometria. Primi dati dai territori norense e cagliaritano

Among the many artefacts recovered at Norav in the survey underwater campaigns conducted by Michel Cassien in the years 1978-1984, have been found twenty terracotta figures, composed mainly of human representations (including five heads of special interest) and animals (snouts and ears). This paper tackles, in a preliminary way, the controversial issue of the place of production of manufactured these artefacts, by means of preliminary archaeometric analysis results conducted on some samples, in order to identify the mineralogical characteristics of the ceramic bodies and to compare them with local clay materials. The comparison between the mineralogical characteristics of the raw materials sampled and ceramic artefacts allowed to find a fair analogy between them and the clay collected in the lagoon of Nora. These clay materials differ from those used, according to Domenico Lovisato, for terracotta figures founded in the lagoon of Santa Gilla, that would show a bioclastic foraminiferal assemblages from mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sediments attributable to marly clay outcrops in the Fangario area (Cagliari). The results of this preliminary study lead to believe a possible local production of the artefacts founded along the coast of Nora, that deviate markedly in ceramic composition from the terracotta figures of Santa Gilla.

Tra i numerosi manufatti recuperati nelle campagne di ricognizione subacquea condotte a Nora da Michel Cassien negli anni 1978-1984 rientrano anche una ventina di terrecotte figurate, composte in prevalenza da raffigurazioni umane (tra cui cinque teste di particolare interesse) e animali (musi e orecchie). Il presente lavoro affronta in forma preliminare la discussa tematica relativa al luogo di produzione dei manufatti, avvalendosi dei risultati delle analisi archeometriche condotte su alcune terrecotte appositamente campionate, allo scopo di identificare le caratteristiche mineralogiche e petrografiche degli impasti ceramici e di confrontarle in primo luogo con quelle delle georisorse locali.