Tessera 1. El Altillo mosaic (Rus, Jaén, Spain)

Black tessera from the mosaic of the Roman villa of El Altillo (Rus, Jaén, Spain). It is made from a vitreous raw material. Two types of particles have been visually identified alongside the vitreous matrix: white and metallic. Raman analysis of the matrix shows the Raman bands characteristic of lead silicate glass (476 cm⁻¹ and 973 cm⁻¹). Raman analysis of the white particles indicates the presence of cristobalite and quartz, while the identified peaks for the metallic particles correspond to lead oxide (litharge). Elemental analysis of the matrix shows a high concentration of Pb (45.82 wt%) and the near absence of Na. All these data rule out the use of a sodium silicate glass typical of Roman tesserae, and confirm the reuse of glass slag from galena smelting. The village of El Altillo is located near the mines and foundries of silver-bearing galena that was exploited by the Romans for several centuries.
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Dimensions

: 1 Centimeters

: 1 Centimeters

: 1 Centimeters

Materials

glass paste

Temporal

: Romano

: 4th century AD

Otros metadatos

Spatial

  • : El Altillo
  • : Rus, Jaén, Spain
  • : WGS84
 

Copyrights

Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND)

References

Serrano, J. L.; Civantos, J. L.;Valcárcel, M.; Palomares, F.; Sánchez, E. (2023): La villa romana El Altillo (Rus, Jaén). Rómula 22, 67-97.

Sánchez, A., Montejo, M., Tuñón, J. et al.(2025): “Raman Analysis of Roman Mosaics From the Upper Guadalquivir Valley (Spain),” Journal of Raman Spectroscopy 56: 1279–1289

Digital Resources

  • Tessera 1
    Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND)
    Arquiberlab
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
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  • Detail of the mosaic
    Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND)
    Arquiberlab
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
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  • Proposed distribution of areas and spaces
    Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND)
    Arquiberlab
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
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  • Tessera 1. Raman analysis of vitreous matrix IUIAI-UJA
    Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND)
    Arquiberlab
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
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  • Tessera 1. Raman analysis (white particle) IUIAI-UJA
    Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND)
    Arquiberlab
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
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  • Tessera 1. Raman analysis (metallic particle) IUIAI-UJA
    Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND)
    Arquiberlab
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
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  • IUIAI-UJA
    Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND)
    Arquiberlab
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
    [ver más...] [ver menos]

Activities

  • Archaeometric analysis

University Research Center for Iberian Archaeology

Raman Microscopy

Mineralogical analysis

The tessera was sectioned to expose fresh, unaltered cross-section

Renishaw ‘in via’ Qontor Spectrometer coupled with a confocal Leica DM LM microscope (CICT, University of Jaén), equipped with a diode laser (785 nm, 300 mW), DPSS laser (532 nm, 50 mW) and a Peltier-cooled CCD detector, calibrated to the 520.5 cm-1 line of silicon.

X-Ray Fluorescence

Elemental analysis

The tessera was sectioned to expose fresh, unaltered cross-section

An energy dispersive X-ray microfluorescence spectrometer (M4 Tornado, Bruker) (CICT, University of Jaen). This spectrometer is equipped with a microfocus X-ray tube with an Rh anode, a polycapillary lens for X-ray focussing, and a 30-mm2 energy dispersive detector (SDD). The sample chamber incorporates an XYZ motorized stage for sample positioning. A high resolution microscope is used to position the sample on the desired distance from the polycapillary. To increase the sensitivity of the low Z elements, the sample chamber can be brought under vacuum. For the analysis of the samples, a spot size of 25 μm was chosen at an operating X-ray tube voltage of 50 kV and intensity of 600 μA. The tube current was adapted for each sample in order to optimise the detection of X-rays.
 

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