Mortars and plasters—How mortars were made. The literary sources

The use of mortars and plasters has been widespread in many cultures for thousands of years and these materials are found in the vast majority of built cultural heritage. They play a crucial role in the preservation of immovable heritage and must be taken into great consideration when conserving historical buildings. Plasters and mortars have been extensively studied from a chemical and mineralogical point of view. The main causes and mechanisms of damage and deterioration are understood and various methods and materials have been developed for their preservation. Treatment development, testing and evaluation in the laboratory, under controlled conditions, has produced a high level of knowledge. However, there is a divergence between the results of academic-scientific studies and practice in the field. Laboratory studies typically tackle only a few variables at the time and the results cannot always be directly applied to address the complex problems that restorers face in their daily work practice. In addition, in situ conservation-restoration is extremely challenging because many of large number of variables involved cannot be controlled or modified. Following a description of the ideal “value-based” conservation process, this compilation work discusses aspects related to understanding deterioration mechanisms and planning of preventive and remedial interventions in a way that may be useful to update conservators-restorers on the status of scientific research in this field, and to guide conservation-scientists to identify unresolved issues, which require future research efforts.

Section: Premisementioning

confidence: 99%

Mortars and plasters—how to manage mortars and plasters conservation

Caroselli

Ruffolo

Piqué

2021

“…The first group of contributions explains how mortars have been made and used through the ages (Arizzi and Cultrone 2021;Ergenç et al 2021;Lancaster 2021;Vitti 2021). An insight into their production, transport and on-site organisation is further provided by this paper.…”

Section: Premisementioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is overwhelming scientific evidence that in the main Roman period, when the use of lime-based mortars for rubble construction was at its height and very widely spread over the empire, the preference was to use the purest calcitic limestones available to burn for lime as recommended by Vitruvius (see Lancaster 2021). At Ammaia, a Roman town in Portugal, Cardoso et al (2014) have shown active selection for this material on the part of Roman builders.…”

Section: Limementioning

confidence: 99%

Production, transport and on-site organisation of Roman mortars and plasters

DeLaine

2021

This paper examines the role of mortars and plasters in the construction process during the Roman period and seeks to elucidate the chaîne opératoire from the production of the main ingredients — lime and aggregate — to their application in structures, based on archaeological, visual and archaeometric data. As well as looking at the actual processes involved, it also considers the functional requirements of the mortars and plasters and the economic implications of their use, especially the nature and cost of transport, which may have led to particular choices being made by Roman builders; it also considers the supply of materials in terms of the logistics of construction. The emphasis is on mortared rubble construction, which was a particular development of the Roman period from the second century BCE and required much larger quantities of lime than previous building techniques. Attention is also paid to the human actions involved and the tools employed.

“…The first group of contributions explains how mortars have been made and used through the ages Cultrone 2021, Ergenç et al 2021;Lancaster 2021;Vitti 2021). An insight into their production, transport and on-site organisation is further provided by DeLaine (2021).…”

Section: Premisementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The text of Vitruvius has often been read with all the rigidity of a black and white text, in order to deny the validity of his teaching or to identify any detachments from the norm. How ancient texts should be read is explained by Lancaster (2021) in this TC.…”

Section: In Conclusion What Was the Operational Criterion Underlying The Construction Of The Masonry Work Of Thamusida?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mortars, plasters and pigments—research questions and sampling criteria

Gliozzo

Pizzo

Russa

2021

Within the Topical Collection, this paper represents an introductory contribution aimed at describing and discussing the research questions and the sampling criteria in the field of mortars, plasters and pigments studies. The paper is divided into three parts. In the first part, some terminological issues are clarified and the building archaeology is introduced as an indispensable method for sampling and interpreting archaeometric results. In the second part, the most common research questions are presented and discussed. Some case studies are also reported to clarify what the expected results may be. The sampling problem is faced in the third part, where the criteria for a representative, functional and suitable selection are provided.