ACTA IMEKO ISSN: 2221-870X September 2017, Volume 6, Number 3, 67-70 ACTA IMEKO | www.imeko.org September 2017 | Volume 6 | Number 3 | 67 Application of Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectroscopy (GC/MS) to the analysis of archaeological ceramic amphorae belonging to the Carthaginian fleet that was defeated in the Egadi battle (241 B.C.) Rosa Pitonzo 1 , Francesco Armetta 1,2 , Maria Luisa Saladino 2 , Eugenio Caponetti 1,2 , Francesca Oliveri 3 , Sebastiano Tusa 3 1 Centro Grandi Apparecchiature-ATeN Center, University of Palermo, Via F. Marini 14, I-90128 Palermo, Italy 2 STEBICEF Department, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze pad.17, Palermo I-90128, Italy 3 Soprintendenza del Mare, Regione Siciliana, Via Lungarini 9, I-90133 Palermo, Italy Section: RESEARCH PAPER Keywords: underwater ceramic amphorae; GS-MS; Egadi Battle; pine resin Citation: Rosa Pitonzo, Francesco Armetta, Maria Luisa Saladino, Eugenio Caponetti, Francesca Oliveri, Sebastiano Tusa, Application of Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectroscopy (GC/MS) to the analysis of archaeological ceramic amphorae belonging to the Carthaginian fleet that was defeated in the Egadi battle (241 B.C.), Acta IMEKO, vol. 6, no. 3, article 10, September 2017, identifier: IMEKO-ACTA-06 (2017)-03-10 Editor: Sabrina Grassini, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Received March 12, 2017; In final form June 1, 2017; Published September 2017 Copyright: © 2017 IMEKO. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited Funding: This work is part of the project “Development and Application of Innovative Materials and processes for the diagnosis and restoration of Cultural Heritage - DELIAS” - PON03PE_00214_2 (Programma Operativo Nazionale Ricerca e Competitività 2007-2013) Corresponding author: Eugenio Caponetti, e-mail: eugenio.caponetti@unipa.it 1. INTRODUCTION Though remarkable underwater sites have been discovered in many parts of the world, the Mediterranean area is rightly recognized as one of the most fruitful locations for deep-water archaeology, due to the significant number of ancient shipwrecks discovered. Most of these are found intact, often with the contents in their original position, making it possible to understand the origin of the ship and to reconstruct the development of shipbuilding traditions [1]. The final battle of the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage, the battle of the Egadi Islands, took place in 241 B.C. and saw the victory of the Romans. Finds of multiple bronze warship rams, helmets, and amphorae, destined for a Carthaginian garrison on Sicily, confirm the naval battle general location and define its landscape. In cargo ships, amphorae are known to have been used to carry wine, olive oil, spices and fish products, as well as several other liquid or semi-liquid goods [2]. Therefore, these objects are extremely precious for deducing agricultural and food- related practices, on the basis of direct archaeological evidence of residues found inside (relatively infrequent), or more frequently the traces found in these relics [3], [4]. Amphorae, in their many types and guises, were traditional package material throughout antiquity, producing a treasure of archaeological data about the rates of production, associated regional products, artisanal production organization, the different actors involved in production as well as exchange, amplitudes of distribution patterns and past networking, with a clear potential of sustaining historically inspired enquiries. Compared to the archaeological prevalence of amphorae, ABSTRACT The aim of this preliminary work was to identify characteristic compounds in 7 underwater marine ceramic amphorae sherds dating from the period of the battle of the Egadi Islands that decided the end of the First Punic War (241 B.C.) by Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectroscopy (GC/MS).