Interdisciplinary study on pottery experimentally impregnated with wine

Abstract

Experimentally developed ceramic pots, with two different sizes of grain, were half-filled with wine and subjected to thermal alteration at constant elevated temperature ((60 ± 2)°C) in darkness for 12 weeks. This work sought to characterise the samples thereby obtained from chemical and mineralogical perspectives using scanning electron microscopy and an energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis system (SEM-EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and capillary electrophoresis (CE) with UV detection as an alternative to chromatographic methods, due to its good resolution, automation, simplicity, high speed, low consumption of chemicals and short time required for sample preparation. The capillary electrophoresis method was used for the detection of five wine biomarkers: succinic acid, malic acid, tartaric acid, citric acid and lactic acid. In general, it was noted that the fine-grained ceramic assortment retained the organic material better than the coarser-grained ceramics. An interesting observation derived from this study was that not only could tartaric acid be considered as a biomarker for wine residues in archaeological pottery, but malic acid could also act similarly for white wine and lactic acid for red wine.

Is it possible to identify ancient wine production using biomolecular approaches?

“…Later studies mentioned the use of transmission and diffuse-reflectance infrared spectroscopy (DRIFTS) as a preliminary test to detect tartaric acid or its calcium salt, followed by 'identification' by liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV) and/or Feigl spot tests (Table 1). More recently, capillary electrophoresis (CE) has been also proposed as a detection method based on experiments on modern wine (Teodor et al 2014). All these methods, although they have laid the foundations for the study of ancient wine, are not appropriate for the identification of tartaric acid in archaeological samples since they either lack the specificity or sensitivity needed for rigorous identification (Boulton and Heron 2000;Stern et al 2008).…”

Chromatographic analysis of honey ceramic artefacts

“…flowers (from Castelo Branco region, centre of Portugal) and from Calluna vulgaris flowers (from Peneda-Gerês National Park, north of Portugal) and a multifloral honey (from unknown origin) bought in a local supermarket. The adopted procedure followed a similar protocol to the one conducted by Teodor and co-workers (Teodor et al 2014) as an attempt to simulate the natural degradation and ageing of wine in ceramic vessels. In fact, a local potter from the city of Braga used local clays and roman similar pottery production techniques to model three reproductions of Fig.…”

A anta dos Currais do Galhordas (Castelo de Vide, Alto Alentejo, Portugal): Arquitetura, cronologia e análise química de resíduos orgânicos de recipientes cerâmicos

“…A deteção dos ácidos sucínico, málico, cinâmico, fumárico e tartárico é compatível com a presença de vestígios de sumo de uva/frutos vermelhos ou de bagos de uva/frutos vermelhos fermentados (BARNARD et al 2011;JERKOVIĆ et al 2011;MCGO-VERN 1998;MCGOVERN & MICHEL 1996;PECCI et al 2013;TEODOR et al 2014).…”