Minerals 2025, 15(7), 746, 2025
This review synthesizes the corpus of archaeometric and analytical investigations focused on mort... more This review synthesizes the corpus of archaeometric and analytical investigations focused on mortar-based materials, including wall paintings, plasters, and concrete, in the Roman Regio X and neighboring territories of northeastern Italy from the mid-1970s to the present. Organized into three principal categories-wall paintings and pigments, structural and foundational mortars, and flooring preparations-the analysis highlights the main methodological advances and progress in petrographic microscopy, mineralogical analysis, and mechanical testing of ancient mortars. Despite extensive case studies, the review identifies a critical need for systematic, statistically robust, and chronologically anchored datasets to fully reconstruct socioeconomic and technological landscapes of this provincial region. This work offers a programmatic research agenda aimed at bridging current gaps and fostering integrated understandings of ancient construction technologies in northern Italy. The full forms of the abbreviations used throughout the text to describe the analytical equipment are provided at the end of the document in the "Abbreviations" section.
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archaeometric techniques that have propelled research on stone provenance but also illuminated the persistent methodological challenges that scholars encounter in this field.
malte a base di calce, mescolate con sabbie classate locali e pozzolane vulcaniche (pomici e tufi), probabilmente provenienti dal Golfo di Napoli. Un campione di cocciopesto ha mostrato caratteristiche distintive, per la presenza di elementi di ossidiane vetrose e compatte, probabilmente di provenienza locale sarda (Monte Arci). Questi risultati offrono approfondimenti sulla tecnologia produttiva dei composti leganti e sulla provenienza delle materie prime impiegate, indicando verosimilmente il coinvolgimento di gruppi artigiani diversificati nel cantiere di costruzione
dell’edificio.
This study presents the results of preliminary archaeometric analyses on five mortar samples from the “Terme a Mare” Baths of Nora (Sardinia), dating to the early 3rd century AD. Using polarized light microscopy on 30 μm thin sections, the analysis revealed a primary group of lime-based mortars mixed with local graded sands and volcanic pozzolans (pumices and tuffs), likely sourced from the Gulf of Naples.
One sample of cocciopesto mortar displayed distinctive characteristics, including vitreous and compact obsidian elements, likely from Monte Arci in Sardinia. These findings provide insights into the production technology of binding materials and the origins of the raw materials used, suggesting the involvement of diverse artisan groups in the construction.
Finally, in the new Trench 5, opened in 2023 to connect the two mentioned excavation areas, the investigations allowed to identify a preserved fragment of necropolis, where some archaic tombs and a large Punic hypogeum, that remained continuously in use until the Hellenistic age, have been investigated.
During the 2022 and 2023 archaeological excavations in Sector 4 of the western Phoenician-Punic necropolis of Nora (Sardinia), hydraulic coating samples were collected from several Roman-era water tanks. These samples were analyzed using archaeometric methods through optical microscopy. This analysis allowed for the detailed identification of their compositional characteristics, providing valuable information not only to outline the coating phases of the structures but also to determine their possible chronological attributions based on distinctive technical-productive markers.
mosaic of the first church of san Nicolò del lido in Venice (11th century AD).
Some considerations · This paper reports the results of the archaeometric
analyses on the wall mosaic of the First Church of San Nicolò del Lido
in Venice (11th cent. AD), recovered in a fragmentary state in the col-
lapse debris of the medieval building during 1980s excavation activities.
The preparatory mortars, the pigments constituting the under-drawing
underlying the mosaic, and the stone tesserae of the artifact were in-
vestigated at the laboratories of the University of Padua adopting a
multi-analytical approach, that integrates Polarized Light Microscopy
on thin sections (plm), X-Ray Powder Diffraction Analysis (xrpd) and
Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive System (sem-
eds). From the analysis, a detailed characterization of the composition
and provenance of the employed raw materials was obtained, allowing
a final evaluation of the overall mosaic’s executive technology.
surveys on construction methods and construction history · Thanks
to a research collaboration between the Department of Hu-
manistic Studies of the University of Udine and the Department
of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padova, an analytical
study of the stratigraphy of a series of core drills, realized in the
2021 to investigate the underground development of the largest
thermal complex of Aquileia (so-called Great Baths) was con-
ducted. Samples of binder mixtures and wooden material were
collected from the cores and analysed in laboratory, in order to
acquire new important information about the layout of the
foundation system of the thermal complex. Furthermore,
radiometric analyses conducted on a wooden element probably
belonging to the building’s foundational wooden pole provided
new data which suggest that the construction may have already
started during the First Tetrarchy.
of the project ArchiDate. The latter, funded by the University of Padua, gathered scientists from the fields of art history, archaeology, material science and archaeometric dating of building materials. After several decades of debates, the chronological framework for two key ancient
structures of the complex, San Prosdocimo’s chapel and the so-called ‘Opilio’s mausoleum’, was established thanks to the integration of mortar
luminescence dating in the stratigraphical study of the architectural remains