Spectroscopic investigations of pigments on a late Roman milestone from Calabria, Southern Italy

In this paper the compositional and structural analysis of a Roman milestone, preserved in the Antiquarium of the archaeological park of Bova Marina, Reggio Calabria, south of Italy, was performed. A combination of spectroscopic techniques was employed for this purpose. Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM+EDX) was used for the morphological investigation and quantitative elemental analysis of the investigated samples; Raman Spectroscopy (RS) was employed to identify their crystalline mineral components and to study their microstructure. The chemical analysis allowed us to identify elements and compounds, closely related to the sample preparation, with the aim to investigate about nature and the possible artistic technique, to better understand the original aspect of this late-Empire road system.