Chronological investigation of prehistoric vitreous materials from Veneto by archaeometric analysis

The glass finds from two Bronze Age settlements located in Veneto (Northern Italy) have been investigated: Fondo Paviani (Verona) and Montebello Vicentino (Vicenza). The present study aims to chemical and physical characterisations of the archaeological finds and, primarily, to answer chronological questions. The main questions are: 1) may the compositional change from HMG to LMHK glasses date back before the FBA stricto sensu? 2) are glasses from the surface layers of Fondo Paviani related to the age of the settlement: late MBA3/RBA – early FBA? If this is true, to which phase may they be referred? Finally 3) are the scraps found at Fondo Paviani during the archaeological survey related to local production? The glass samples have been characterised by SEM-EDS, EPMA and computerised 2D-image analyses. The results may be summarised in three main points: 1) the bead from the excavation of Montebello Vicentino, belonging to the transition between RBA and FBA, is a HMG glass. This confirms that LMHK glass did not exist before the FBA stricto sensu; 2) measured texture and the LMHK-type glass composition of a bead from sur-face layers of Fondo Paviani allow us to unambiguously date the bead tothe FBA period; 3) based on their composition, the glass scraps from thesame archaeological survey cannot be dated to the Bronze Age. The glassscraps therefore are not related to local production. Actually one is a co-lourless glass with LMG composition, and the others are early 20th century blast furnace slags produced in the Fe smelting process.It is argued that in presence of a well detailed age-composition relationship, archaeometric analyses may greatly aid the archaeological interpretation of puzzling finds.