Painted Terracotta in Carthage: Identifying the Pigments of Fruit Figurines

The punie craftsmanship development in Carthage was the subject of numerous studies, however, a few of them dealt with the materials used in baked clay and its decoration. The report shows the analysis of pigments decorating two types of objects, fruits for funeral uses and statuettes. These analysis have been achieved on microsamples, essentially by Raman micro-spectrometry and sometimes completed by elementary ones. No organic colored product was detected. During the punic cra, the artist’s palette comprises yellow and red iron oxides, components widely spread in nature, and also Egyptian blue, like the one in the Mediterranean world. Two pigments arc particularly interesting because their raw materials arc not from a local origin : mercury sulfide which may originate from Iberian peninsula and malachite which engenders the need for a supply in copper. The white coatings arc kaolinit basis. For all the fruit coatings, a titanium oxide, anatase, has been identified and might be an indication of kaolinite geographic origin. The coating of a statuette contains a phosphorus component, which could be calcium phosphate, in order to reinforce white colour.