Archaeometric studies of Tang-style pottery figurines for authentication purposes

Tang ceramic burial figurines (618-907 CE) represent one of the most significant expressions of ancient Chinese cultural heritage. Produced mainly in northern Chinese kiln centres, these statuettes were frequently decorated with lead-based sancai glazes and fired using a two-stage process. Since the late nineteenth century, large numbers of Tang-style figurines have circulated in the art market, often with limited or unreliable provenance documentation. Their circulation, together with the widespread production of modern reproductions, has raised important questions regarding their authenticity. Within this context, the present thesis provides a systematic multi-technique archaeometric investigation of a heterogeneous group of approximately 40 Tang-style figurines preserved in Italian museum collections. The research had two main objectives: (i) to establish an integrated archaeometric dataset describing the materials and manufacturing processes of Tang-style museum figurines; (ii) to identify potential physico-chemical markers capable of supporting future technological and authentication studies, through the combined investigation of ceramic bodies, glaze layers and glaze-body interfaces. The study started with the establishment of the corpus of figurines through an interdisciplinary collaboration with museum professionals and experts in Chinese art history and archaeology. Preliminary in situ visual examination, including ultraviolet fluorescence imaging and FORS investigation, guided a targeted micro-sampling campaign designed to maximise information while minimising material removal. The characterisation of the micro-samples was organised into two complementary parts. The first focused on ceramic bodies through colour evaluation, mineralogical and elemental analyses integrated with multivariate statistical methods and comparison with selected literature reference data from archaeological Tang kiln sites. The second part investigated glaze layers and glaze-body interfaces, addressing glaze formulation, firing technology and interfacial diffusion and reaction processes. High-resolution synchrotron radiation micro- and nano-X-ray fluorescence mapping, combined with synchrotron micro-X-ray powder diffraction, was employed to characterise elemental diffusion-reaction profiles and the stratigraphic distribution of crystalline phases. The integrated analytical approach revealed considerable technological variability among the investigated museum figurines. Multivariate statistical analyses and compositional relationships identified several outliers compared with Tang productions reported in the literature. Mineralogical and spectroscopic evidence further supported these observations, as several sancai-style specimens exhibited low-temperature mineral assemblages and lacked mullite-bearing matrices, suggesting firing conditions inconsistent with those generally reported for authentic Tang ceramics. The synchrotron investigation of the glaze-body interface provided new insights into interface thickness, elemental diffusion behaviour and phase evolution. Overall, this research demonstrates that the integration of compositional, mineralogical, spectroscopic and statistical data with high-resolution synchrotron imaging provides a comprehensive methodological framework for evaluating technological compatibility in Tang-style ceramics. Beyond proposing the first set of potential physico-chemical markers for future authentication studies, this work establishes the basis for progressively less invasive analytical strategies. It also highlights the importance of interdisciplinary data integration for the interpretation of museum collections, and provides a potentially transferable methodological approach for the investigation of a wide range of historical and modern glazed ceramics