AN ATTRACTIVE WAY TO RECOVER INFORMATION FROM ANCIENT CERAMICS USING EPR SPECTROSCOPY

Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy is useful to archeo logists in recognizing and dating sites. This non-destructive techniqu e of analysis gives information on material composition, on paramagnet ic impurities, on firing techniques and on surface oxidation. In this paper it is shown how to recover information about firing techniques f rom a fragment of ceramic pot, dating from the 9th century B.C. The in ternal brown-black layer showed a strong anisotropy whilst the externa l reddish layer showed hardly any. This indicates a non-homogeneous ra pid firing of the pot, due probably to primitive firing techniques.