Preliminary Investigation of Ceramic Materials – Particularly Important Stage for Successful Conservation of Pottery

The aim of this paper is to explore the potentialities of powder X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy in assessing the chemical and mineralogical composition of ancient pottery, with the final goal of building up the possible sol-gel chemistry methodology for its conservation. Two samples of historical ancient pottery from different places of Lithuania (villages Benaičiai and Turlojiškės) were analyzed. For comparison, the latter-day ceramic sample (calcinated clay) was characterized as well