Vibrational Spectroscopy 127 (2023) 103557 Available online 21 June 2023 0924-2031/© 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Spectroscopic identification of amber and fabric in a Roman burial (Carmona, Spain) Daniel Cosano a, * , Dolores Esquivel a , Juan Manuel Roman b , Fernando Lafont c , Jos´e Rafael Ruiz Arrebola a, * a Departamento de Química Org´ anica - Instituto Químico para la Energía y el Medioambiente (IQUEMA), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de C´ ordoba, Campus de Rabanales, Edificio Marie Curie, C´ordoba, Spain b Museo de la Ciudad de Carmona, Calle San Ildefonso, 1, 41410 Carmona, Sevilla, Spain c Servicio Central de Apoyo a la Investigaci´on (SCAI), Unidad de Espectrometría de Masas y Cromatografía, Universidad de C´ordoba, Spain A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: X-ray diffraction Raman spectroscopy Amber ABSTRACT The furnishings found in a Roman grave in Carmona, southern Spain, included three beads that were possibly from a necklace and vestiges of a bag where the goods were probably kept. Analyses by X-ray diffraction, infrared, and Raman spectroscopy revealed that the beads were made from Baltic Sea amber and also that the bag containing them was made from flax. 1. Introduction and archaeological context Rehabilitation work at 53 Seville St in Carmona (southern Spain) in the summer of 2019 unearthed a collective burial site. The burial chamber was rectangular and 3.29 × 1.73 m 2 in size, and had a vaulted ceiling up to 2.41 m high (see Fig. 1a). The side walls had eight niches (loculi). The whole floor and the walls were coated with opus signinum (small fragments of tiles mixed with lime) [1]. The vault was made with reddish lime mortar and decorated with geometric motifs consisting of intertwined red and yellow lines forming a grid (Fig. 1a) [2]. The loculi contained eight niches two of which were empty and the other six held ash urns with bone vestiges and other objects typical of funerary rituals and offerings. The niche in loculus 7, which was ovoid and made of lead, contained a glass urn (Fig. 1b) holding cremated bones, an unguentarium, and three round pieces probably made from amber and possibly being spindle whorls or beads. There were also organic vestiges of fabric, possibly from the bag originally containing the beads. Amber is a fossilized plant resin formed largely from conifer and angiosperm debris [3]. This material can range widely in color, from light brown to yellow or even green. Chemically, it consists of labdanoid terpene polymers formed by the maturation of a labdatriene monomer across several geological eras [4]. Amber has been considered a semi- precious stone and used massively to make beading and symbolically diverse amulets testifying to the social prestige of their owners on account of their special physical properties (particularly their color, brightness and ease of cutting). Amber, which was frequently present in Roman necropolis (especially in those belonging to families with a high social and economic status) [5], can be readily identified from its infrared (IR) or Raman spectrum. Historically, European amber has come mainly from the Baltic re- gions; some specimens, however, were collected in the Iberian Peninsula [6,7]. As early as Roman times, Pliny wrote about well-established routes for amber trade to northern Europe which allowed the Romans to reach those regions [8]. Thus, the so-called “amber route” connected the Nordic regions on the North and Baltic seas with the Mediterranean regions of the Italian and Greek peninsulas, and also with the Black Sea and Egypt. Settling of these routes was helped by the expansion of the Roman Empire, after which the amber trade was completely controlled. Iberian amber, which formed in the Cretaceous, was highly brittle and hence very difficult to cut. Amber from northern Spanish deposits occurred in larger fragments that were used to make various types of objects long ago [6]. On the other hand, Baltic amber was from the Eocene, clearer and more transparent, lighter in color, and less brittle than Iberian amber, so it was always more appreciated for making valuable goods [7]. The primary aim of this work was to identify the materials used to make the necklace beads and the bag that contained them in a burial urn found in Carmona (southern Spain) from infrared, Raman spectra and X- ray pattern. * Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: q92cohid@uco.es (D. Cosano), qo1ruarj@uco.es (J.R.R. Arrebola). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Vibrational Spectroscopy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/vibspec https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vibspec.2023.103557 Received 27 April 2023; Received in revised form 8 June 2023; Accepted 15 June 2023