Earthen mortars from Cremona (Northern Italy): The evolution throughout centuries of a manufacturing tradition

Mortars, plasters and pigments—research questions and sampling criteria

“…-Ceramic powder (especially tiles Franzini et al 1999Franzini et al , 2000 and opal-A (Sarp Tunçoku and Caner-Saltık 2006); -Specific soils in earthen mortars (see, e.g. Cantù et al 2016).…”

“…-Wood, straw and charcoal in Roman mortars and plasters from Petra in Jordan (Al-Bashaireh and Hodgins 2011); -A saccharide material-based additive of plant origin and a natural gum in the mortars of the medieval shipyard of Amalfi Arsenale (Rampazzi et al 2016); -Egg white and urea in the mortars from the Yoros Castle (13 th -14 th AD) at Anadolukavağı (Kurugöl and Güleç 2012); -Fibers in 13 th -18 th AD mortars from Erzurum in Turkey (Binici et al 2010); -Proteins and/or animal blood in post-medieval earthen mortars from Cremona in Italy (Cantù et al 2016); -Egg yolk, oil and some resin in mortars repairs from the St. Engracia Basilica at Zaragoza in Spain (Luxán et al 1995); -Sticky rice, egg white and tung oil, brown sugar, pig blood and tung oil in several Chinese mortars, variously dated from 563 to 1381 AD (Yang et al 2009;Yang et al 2010;Zhang et al 2014;Zhao et al 2014aZhao et al , b, 2015.…”

Application of different protocols and age-models in OSL dating of earthen mortars

“…Sometimes, earthen mortars are also used to bind high quality fired bricks in churches, private buildings and civic architecture. This construction technique is witnessed in Cremona (Northern Italy, Po valley; Cantù et al, 2016;Fieni, 1999;Bonazzi and Fieni, 1995), where the earthen mortars object of this study were sampled from two buildings whose structures were well dated on historical ground. To test the dosimetric properties of the samples we used both the small aliquot multigrain and the single grain OSL protocols (Murray and Roberts, 1997).…”