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Dr. sc. ing. Līga Bērziņa-Cimdiņa
Bc. sc. ing. Jana Vecstaudža
Mg. sc. ing. Dmitrijs Jakovļevs
Chemical Analysis
of the Turaida Castle Stove Tiles
Summary
In January 2013, chemical composition analysis of five stove tile fragments, found in archaeological
excavations at Turaida castle, was performed at the Institute of General Chemical Engineering of Riga
Technical University.
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) methods
are well suited for research of archaeological type ceramics. It was confirmed by observations obtained
during morphological and chemical composition analysis of stove tiles in the Turaida castle. It was
determined that the green glaze is coloured by copper compounds, the brown glaze – by copper and
iron compounds, whereas the yellow glaze – by tin and antimony compounds. Judging from the chemical
composition analysis of several ceramic sherds it was concluded that their composition is homogeneous
and probably the clay for stove tiles had been used from nearby site. However, for a thorough determination
of clay origin, petrographic analyses and mineral identification should be performed.