This analysis demonstrates ancient gold manufacturing techniques and identifies depletion gilding in artifacts.
Protohistoric gold findings from the archaeological site of Roca Vecchia (Melendugno, Lecce, Italy) are analyzed involving micrography and stratified XRF analysis. This exploitation allows to get a deeper insight into ancient gold manufacturing and wear processes adopted in the Southern Italian FBA. The compositional data suggest that the objects were made of raw gold. From a detailed analysis of X‐ray line ratios, we are able to identify artifacts with a thin, < 1 μm, depletion gilding. The micrography analysis allows to establish that both gold sheets and wires are obtained by hammering techniques and presented surface finishing indicating skilled craftmanship. These sophisticated techniques allowed to manufacturing precious artifacts even in the presence of scarce quantities of raw material, fully exploiting the mechanical properties of gold.
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Dell’Aquila et al. (2025) studied this question.
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