Per un’archeologia del restauro funzionale in antico sui grandi contenitori: esempi da Difesa San Biagio (Basilicata-MT)

This paper focuses on more recent archaeological research carried out at the Classical Age village of Difesa San Biagio and on the discovery of artifacts with repairs made in ancient times. First of all, we discuss some general issues regarding the motivations and the various restoration techniques. We then discuss the three most common restoration practices on pottery vessels such as the use of adhesives, the integration on the ceramic body of external clay fragments and the use of junction elements. The first method, based on the use of resins, is one of the oldest systems for restoration so far encountered; the second, less used, consisted of the insertion of clay fragments of different origin into the points where the ceramic body appeared incomplete; the third system, however, involved the creation of holes in the pottery fragments in the vicinity of the fracture and the placement of mechanical joining elements, perishable or of a metal material, in the holes themselves in order to hold the clay fragments together securely. The type being discussed in this paper is the latter one and this ancient form of restoration was carried out on large containers with lead clamps discovered at Difesa San Biagio.