Reproducing a Roman maritime structure with Vitruvian pozzolanic concrete

Unlocking the secrets of Al-tobermorite in Roman seawater concrete

“…Specimen BAI.06.03T1 is a fragment of the compact grayish yellow (10YR 7/4) vitric-crystal tuff coarse aggregate (caementa, as described below) of the Baianus Sinus concrete, with primary illite, sanidine, and authigenic analcite, phillipsite, chabazite, and calcite. It is similar to grayish yellow (10YR 7/4) pumiceous tuff quarried at Bacoli, with primary sanidine, and authigenic analcite, phillipsite and chabazite, for the 2004 experimental reproduction of Roman maritime concrete at Brindisi (Oleson et al 2006;Vola et al 2011a): 05.BRI.02.T1 and 06.BRI.C1.T1 are coarse aggregate of that experimental 2 m 3 concrete block, drilled one and two years after installation. The Baianus Sinus and Bacoli whole rock tuff specimens have similar Zr/Y and Nb/Y values, 9.81 to 10.12 and 1.48 to 1.57, respectively, suggesting a common Bacoli source; Zr/Y coincides with the whole rock NYT analyses, but Nb/Y falls in the high end of the compositional field (Table 1; Fig.…”

“…8a and 8b) were performed at the Advanced Nanofabrication Imaging and Characterization Laboratories, King Abdullah (Oleson et al 2006). ‡ Bacoli pozzolan analysis (1) in Costa and Massazza (1974, p. 6), also quoted as analysis (1) in Massazza (2004, p. 475).…”

“…The original seawater concrete mix design of the harbor concretes has been previously described as vol%, using empirical observations and the recommendation of a 1:2 volumetric ratio of lime:pulvis volcanic ash indicated by Vitruvius (Oleson et al 2004(Oleson et al , 2006Brandon et al 2008). Calculations of the relative proportions of geologic materials as weight percent (Appendix Table 1) use bulk mass densities of 1200 to 1400 kg/m 3 for the lithified facies of the NYT (Papakonstantinou et al 2012), as an approximation or the Bacoli Tuff; 880 kg/m 3 for the dry lump quicklime (Brune 2011), calcined at about 900 °C; and 1000 to 1200 kg/m 3 for the loosely consolidated facies of the NYT (Papakonstantinou et al 2012), a source of lightweight aggregate in modern structural concretes (de'Gennaro et al 2005), which provides an approximation for the pumiceous ash pozzolan, possibly from the Averno 2 pumice fall deposit (Fig.…”

Assessment of material characteristics of ancient concretes, Grande Aula, Markets of Trajan, Rome

“…Croci, 1993;Samuelli Ferretti, 2005;Brune and Perucchio, in press;Perucchio and Brune, in press). The results of compressive strength studies of maritimetype Roman concretes with pumiceous aggregate from the Bay of Naples (Oleson et al, 2006;Goldsworthy and Min, 2009) are not directly applicable to the wall concretes, because the compositions and textures of the pozzolanic mortars are quite different, as noted by Vitruvius (On Architecture 2.6.1-6; 2.4.1-2) (Jackson et al, 2007;Vola and Gotti, in press).…”

Characterisation of archaeological mortars from Pompeii (Campania, Italy) and identification of construction phases by compositional data analysis

“…Recent reports (Bakolas et al, 1995;Vendrell-Saz et al, 1996;Moropoulou et al, 2000Moropoulou et al, , 2003Crisci et al, 2001Crisci et al, , 2002Crisci et al, , 2004Riccardi et al, 2007, Carò et al, 2008Franquelo et al, 2008;Barba et al, 2009;Jackson et al, 2009;Belfiore et al, in press) have shown that mortars are excellent sources for identifying the provenance of materials used in historical edifices and for information on the construction history of specific monuments. In particular, Roman mortars have long attracted the attention of many researchers in an attempt to discover the secret of their extraordinary durability (Massazza, 1988;Oleson et al, 2004;Silva et al, 2005;Genestar et al, 2006;Gotti et al, 2008;Oleson et al, 2006;Pavía and Caro, 2008;Goldsworthy and Min, 2009;Miriello et al, in press).…”