CHAPTER 2: Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of Romano-British Wall Paintings: A Comparison Between Geographically Different Sites at the Northern Fringe of the Roman Empire

Wall painting fragments from a settlement at Faverdale in the Tees Valley, and three villas, Holme House and Dalton-on-Tees, on the southern bank of the River Tees, and Old Durham, located only some 25 km from Hadrian's Wall, have been analysed using Raman spectroscopy. These sites represent the most northerly known villas at the fringe of the Roman Empire. The palettes comprised a range of pigments which were all available locally, such as haematite, carbon, calcite and goethite. There is no evidence for the use of imported pigments unlike other Roman villas studied elsewhere. The use of limewash putty as a base for the painting is ubiquitous but the discovery of aragonite in the admixture with haematite in a pigment from the Faverdale site is unique in Romano-British wall paintings. This can be correlated with the recovery of oyster, mussel and cockle shells at this site. The discovery of massicot at Holme House is also unique here in conjunction with goethite. The conclusion is that although these Roman villas were large and impressive structures, their distance from their more socially stable southern counterparts necessitated the adoption of native pigments for their decoration.