Compositional Analysis of the White and Red Colours in the Chalcolithic ‘Sanctuary’ at Căscioarele-‘Ostrovel’ Tell (Southern Romania, c. 4800-4550 cal BC)

This paper presents a first stage in the analysis of the chemical composition of the pigments used to paint Chalcolithic objects and architectural elements from the tell settlement at Căscioarele, on Ostrovel Islet, in Southern Romania (Figure 1). The 11 samples analysed so far originate from a ‘sanctuary’ (House 12) excavated in 1968, in the first level of habitation (for this context, see Dumitrescu 1970; Dragoman 2015-2016). Based on the decoration of some vessels and the 14C dates obtained, the ‘sanctuary’ was attributed to the last phase of the Boian culture (Figure 2), i.e. the Spanţov phase or the transition