Roman amber identified as Siegburgite
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Roman amber identified as Siegburgite Christian Dietz & Gianluca Catanzariti & Sergio Quintero & Alfredo Jimeno
Received: 11 October 2012 / Accepted: 30 January 2013 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Abstract A small amber fragment from the period of Roman occupation of Numantia (Garray, Spain) was characterised by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy and optical microscopy. The material was found to be a polystyrene-like material, which is a very rare fossil resin known as Siegburgite or class III amber. Until now, this material was found in Europe only at two sites, both localised in Germany, and it is the first time that this type of amber was identified in wrought archaeological artefacts. The discussion includes the applicability of the method to distinguish false from true and amber of different origins, its use and trading as well as a hypothesis for a transport route. The study highlights the need for a more systematic study of archaeological amber remains. The finding also proves the exploitation and trading of local, non-Baltic amber deposits throughout the Roman Empire. Keywords Numantia . Roman Empire . Amber . Amber route . Siegburgite . FTIR
Introduction Numantia was an Iron Age hill fortified settlement, which controlled a crossing of the rivers Tera and Merdancho with the river Duero about 60 km from its source in the province of Soria, situated in north-central Spain (Fig. 1). The site was inhabited by the Celtiberian tribe of the Arevaci from as early C. Dietz (*) : G. Catanzariti Centre for Archaeometry and Archaeological Analysis, Complutense University of Madrid, C/ Prof Aranguren s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain e-mail: [email protected] S. Quintero : A. Jimeno Faculty of History and Geography, Department of Prehistory, Complutense University of Madrid, C/ Prof Aranguren s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
as the third century BC, later getting in conflict with the expanding Roman Republic. After 20 years (153–133 BC) of tenacious resistance, the site was finally defeated. Afterwards, there are remains of Roman reoccupation during the reign of Augustus (Jimeno et al. 2002). Use and trading of amber From the dawn of human history, amber was highly appreciated. The objects crafted from amber caused controversial discussions between archaeologists, not only with respect to their geographic origin, corresponding culture and production sites but also regarding their trading routes and main circuits for commercialisation. The problem becomes more difficult because a vast number of European production centres and their numerous interrelations are part of the equation (Rovira i Port 1994). The eldest known use of amber dates back to the Upper Palaeolithic, in particular to the Aurignacian culture in Central Europe and to the Magdalenian in Southern and Northern France and the French Pyrenees. In general, these findings are not wrought and belong to superficial local Cenozoic deposits. The few processed items are either of Baltic origin, such as the horse head from Isturitz (de Saint Pèri
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