Forensic investigations on 1900 years old brick and mortar samples from Buddhist stupa located at Nalasopara, India

Abstract

A comprehensive understanding of the materials used and practices adopted during the construction of ancient structures becomes necessary in the realm of forensic civil engineering. In this study, forensic investigations on a 1900 years old Buddhist stupa located at Nalasopara (India) were conducted through comprehensive characterization of bricks and mud mortar samples of the structure. The overall conservation status of the bricks was investigated using a combination of techniques like BET-specific surface area, helium gas pycnometer, XRF, XRD, ATR-FTIR, Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry, SEM-EDX and TG-DTA. Based on the comprehensive (by resorting to physical, chemical, mineralogical, morphological, thermal and porosity) characterization, it has been observed that the stupa was primarily constructed using normal and overfired bricks with firing temperatures varying between 700 and 900 °C. Moreover, the lateritic soil sourced to manufacture brick and mud mortar was excavated from the same geological formation.