Amphoras are large ceramic vessels which were used, in the Greaco-Roman period, to ship
wine and other liquid products throughout the Mediterranean. An amphora was excavated at
El-Bahnasa archaeological site at the south of Egypt and it dates back to the Late Roman
period (4th-6th centuries AD.). The condition of the amphora was very poor and suffered from
many deterioration phenomena including, accumulation of dirt and soil residues, narrow and
wide cracks, decay and fragility of pottery body and crystallization of salts. Furthermore, many
shards are broken from the body and some are missing. The aim of the present paper is to
study the chemical and the mineralogical composition of the clay body, the soil residues and
the crystallized salts and to restore it. Different analytical methods were used including; X-ray
diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive Xray
spectroscopy (EDS). The results obtained by (XRD) reported that clay body contains
Quartz (SiO2), Calcite (CaCO3), Anorthite (CaAl2Si2O8), Halite (NaCl), Magnetite (Fe3O4),
Dolomite (Ca Mg(CO3) and Hematite (Fe2O3), while the salt is Halite mineral (Sodium
chloride). The soil residues sample consists of Halite, Quartz and Calcite. Different restoration
treatments were carried out on the amphora comprising; mechanical and chemical cleaning,
consolidation, bonding and replacement processes.