Non-Invasive Analytical Techniques Applied on Pigments Characterization of Ancient Bivalve Shells

Abstract

In this paper was studied eight bivalve shells (with pigments traces) collected from Cheia archaeological site (Eneolitihic site, dated between the end of the 6th millennium and the beginning of the 5th millennium cal BC, Romania), in order to established correlations related to morphology, composition, longevity and belonging to the archaeological site of these shells. The samples (pigments and shells) were investigated, from morphological and chemical composition point of view, by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and attenuated total reflectance - Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were carry out using IBM SPSS Statistics software to assess the similarities between the investigated samples