An attractive way to recover information from ancient ceramics using EPR spectroscopy

Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy is useful to archeologists in recognizing and dating sites. This non-destructive technique of analysis gives information on material composition, on paramagnetic impurities, on firing techniques and on surface oxidation. In this paper it is shown how to recover information about firing techniques from a fragment of ceramic pot, dating from the 9th century B.C. The internal brown-black layer showed a strong g anisotropy whilst the external reddish layer showed hardly any. This indicates a non-homogeneous rapid firing of the pot, due probably to primitive firing techniques.