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Dr
David
Williams
Dept of Archaeology
University of Southampton
Avenue Campus
Highfield
Southampton
SO17 1BJ
England
Tel: 080 593032
There are two main fabric groups: Fabric A (quartz with some limestone) This fabric displays a light orange or light brown colour usually with a darker core, while a thin white skin may be present on the exterior surface. This is a fine sandy fabric with rare sparse limestone and a little red iron ore. Fabric B (limestone/calcite and quartz) Light orange/light brown in colour. This is an extremely fine to very fine sandy fabric characterized by a moderate to common amount of limestone, including some calcite and a little red iron oxide.
Fabric A: Fine textured quartz grains between 0.125-0.25mm, which are widely distributed in the clay matrix. There are a few larger quartz grains generally 0.5mm in size with sparse small pieces of limestone. This group shows some similarities with fabric descriptions classified by Keay as from north Tunisia; in particular with north Tunisia sub-type a (Keay, 1984: 447-8). These correspond to Peacock’s (1984b: 14-5) quartz-limestone fabric 1 and 2, assigned to the Carthage-Nabeul group. Fabric B: The quartz is very common, generally measuring between 0.125 and 0.25mm in size, with a very few up to 0.5mm. Most of the quartz is sub-rounded to rounded in shape while a few are sub-angular. A minority of the quartz is polycrystalline. The calcite/limestone content is between 5-7%. A few gastropod and foraminifera fossils were noted. A somewhat similar limestone/calcitic fabric has been described by Peacock (1984b), for which he suggested an origin in the limestone hills of northern Tunisia. However he also states that limestones which might bear rich calcite are common in the central Mediterranean including Tunisia, Malta and Sicily. Pina Franco
i Castrum Perti