The present paper sheds new light on the alteration of archaeological ceramics buried in marine environments by analysing in detail a large dataset of Hellenistic and Late Roman Republican transport amphorae from 15 sites along the well-known ancient maritime trade route off the Dalmatian coast in southern Croatia. These include amphorae from shipwrecks, kiln sites and settlements. Ceramic petrography and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) have been used to compare sherds of amphorae made in the same workshop, of the same fabric and origin, but recovered from both shipwrecks and terrestrial sites and were therefore exposed to different burial environments over two millennia. The integration of both methods permitted the identification of differential microstructural and geochemical alteration of the amphorae under the sea relative to those found on land. By applying principal components analysis and test statistics, we have detected enrichment of As, Ca, Na, Sb, Sr and U and depletion of Ba, Cs, K and Rb in amphorae from the marine environment, relative to those buried on land. The implications of the study are discussed in terms of the provenance determination of amphorae from submerged environments and the reconstruction of ancient maritime trade routes.

本文通过详细分析来自克罗地亚南部达尔马提亚海岸附近著名的古代海上贸易路线沿线 15 个地点的希腊化和晚期罗马共和国运输双耳瓶的大型数据集，揭示了埋藏在海洋环境中的考古陶瓷的变化。 . 这些包括来自沉船、窑址和定居点的双耳瓶。陶瓷岩相学和仪器中子活化分析 (INAA) 已被用于比较在同一车间制造的双耳瓶碎片，具有相同的织物和来源，但从沉船和陆地遗址中回收，因此在两千年的时间里暴露在不同的埋葬环境中. 两种方法的结合允许识别海底双耳相对于陆地上发现的微结构和地球化学变化的差异。通过应用主成分分析和测试统计，我们检测到海洋环境中的双耳瓶中 As、Ca、Na、Sb、Sr 和 U 的富集以及 Ba、Cs、K 和 Rb 的消耗，相对于埋在陆地上的那些。从水下环境中双耳瓶的来源确定和古代海上贸易路线的重建方面讨论了该研究的意义。