RT Journal Article
T1 Characterization of Roman and Arabic mural paintings of the archaeological site of Cercadilla (Cordoba, Spain)
A1 Gil Torrano, Andrea
A1 Gómez Morón, María Auxiliadora
A1 Martín, José María
A1 Ortiz Calderón, Rocío
A1 Fuertes Santos, Mª del Camino
A1 Ortiz, Pilar
K1 Roman Mural Paintings
K1 Arabic Mural Paintings
K1 Cercadilla
K1 Optical Microscopy
K1 SEM-EDX
K1 XRD
K1 XRF
K1 FTIR
AB The archaeological site of Cercadilla (Cordoba, Spain) includes a complete chronological sequence from the 3rd to 12th centuries. The most relevant monument is a Roman palace dated between the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century AD. It is believed that it was the headquarters of the Emperor Maximiano Herculeo. A bathtub with mural paintings has been found in the thermal zone of the palace. Regarding the occupation of the archaeological site in the medieval period, it should be pointed out that two houses with mural paintings were found; these belong to the Caliphal era (10th-11th centuries). During the Caliphal era, the archaeological site was mostly occupied by one of the large suburbs surrounding the walled city. Cercadilla was gradually abandoned; this process starts at the beginning of the 11th century. This study is focused on the analysis of pigments and preparatory layers of red and white mural paintings of the Roman period in the bath zone and on the analysis of pigments in mural paintings in two houses of the Caliphal era. In the thermal zone, the walls have a white mural painting with vertical and horizontal red bands, while the walls in the two Caliphal houses present the red mural painting decorated with white stripes. Techniques such as Optical Microscopy (OM), Scanning Electron Microscopy in combination with Energy Dispersive X-ray Microanalysis (SEM-EDX), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), micro X-ray Diffraction (μ-XRD), Wavelength Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (WD-XRF), and Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) have been used to study the mural paintings of this archaeological site. The results allowed to determine the composition of the materials used and to understand the differences between the technologies employed in Roman and Caliphal remains studied.
PB Wiley
YR 2019
FD 2019-07
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10433/27515
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10433/27515
LA en
NO Gil-Torrano*, A.; Gómez-Morón, A.; Martín, J.M.; Ortiz, R.; Fuertes Santos, M.C.; Ortiz*, P. (2019). Characterization of Roman and Arabic mural paintings of the archaeological site of Cercadilla (Cordoba, Spain), Scanning. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3578083
NO This paper has been supported and based on the methodology developed by two projects: RIVUPH, an Excellence Project of Junta de Andalucia (code HUM-6775), and Art-Risk, a RETOS Art-Risk (code BIA2015-64878-R) of Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and European Regional Development Fund and the funds of the research team TEP-199 from Junta de Andalucía. Part of the research has been carried out, thanks to the internship of Rocío Ortiz at the New University of Lisbon. P. Ortiz is grateful to the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte for her fellowship Salvador Madariaga in the University of Oxford as a visiting researcher.
NO Universidad Pablo de Olavide. Departamento de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales
DS RIO
RD Oct 13, 2026