Dachterrakotten aus Olympia

Geochemische Untersuchungen an Proben in der Antikensammlung der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Abstract

The roof tiles of the treasuries of Olympia show clear differences in their technical execution as well as their ornamental design. For this reason, the question always arose as to what extent potters from the cities that commissioned these buildings were involved in their production. With the help of portable X-ray fluorescence analysis, it was possible to show on the basis of a number of fragments of the roofs, which are in the Antikensammlung in Berlin, that they were all made of clay used also for the other buildings in Olympia. Local clay deposits were therefore exploited. However, it was also shown that the clays were prepared in different ways, i. e. the potters employed their own production techniques.