New Insights of Historical Mortars Beyond Pompei: The Example of Villa del Pezzolo, Sorrento Peninsula

Concetta Rispoli,Piergiulio Cappelletti,Claudia Di Benedetto,Vincenza Guarino,Alberto De Bonis,Sossio Fabio Graziano,Vincenzo Morra,Renata Esposito

doi:10.3390/min9100575

Abstract

The topic of this study is the archaeometric characterization of mortars from Villa del Pezzolo, a Roman Villa located in Seiano (Napoli-Campania, Italy), dated between the 1st century B.C. and the 3rd century A.D. Mortars were analyzed by means of a multi-analytical approach (polarized optical microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersed spectrometry, thermal analyses and mercury intrusion porosimetry) according to existing recommendations. Analytical results evidenced the use of local geomaterials composed of sedimentary and volcanic aggregates in the mix design and confirmed the three distinct building phases identified by archaeologists. Volcanic tuff fragments, identified in the 1st building phase can be ascribed to Campanian Ignimbrite formation, widely cropping out in the Sorrento Peninsula, as confirmed by the presence of glassy shards, partially devitrified and replaced by authigenic feldspar, a typical feature of welded grey ignimbrite lithofacies (WGI). Volcanic aggregates in samples of the 2nd and 3rd building phases show, instead, the presence of leucite-bearing volcanic scoriae and garnet crystal fragments related to Somma-Vesuvius products. Study of these mortars allowed us to: (1) understand the production technologies; (2) highlight use of materials with hydraulic behavior, such as volcanic and fictile fragments; (3) confirm the three building phases from compositional features of mortars and (4) highlight the change over time of the volcanic aggregate for mortars mix-design.

Highlights

The Bay of Naples (Figure 1a) is characterized by the presence of several worldwide known archaeological sites [1,2,3,4] and references therein, some of them are very interesting and well preserved, among which Pompeii represents, by far, an almost unique example of a still-visible ancient town.minor, but not for importance, sites are widespread all over the area.Villa del Pezzolo is a Roman villa, located in Seiano, which represents a good example of a Patrician villa (Figure 1a,b)
The villa was inhabited throughout four centuries, between the 1st century B.C. to
This research aims to: (a) characterize the mortars used in the construction of Villa del Pezzolo in order to improve knowledge about Roman construction material manufacturing by means of a detailed detailed microstructural and compositional examination of the cementiceous binding matrix and aggregates, (b) identify the mix design and provenance of raw materials; and (c) highlight the minerogenetic secondary processes

Summary

Introduction

The Bay of Naples (Figure 1a) is characterized by the presence of several worldwide known archaeological sites [1,2,3,4] and references therein, some of them are very interesting and well preserved, among which Pompeii represents, by far, an almost unique example of a still-visible ancient town. Villa del Pezzolo is a Roman villa, located in Seiano, which represents a good example of a Patrician villa (Figure 1a,b). The villa was inhabited throughout four centuries, between the 1st century B.C. to. 3rd century A.D. During that period, there were more reconstruction phases following catastrophic. 9, x FOR PEER REVIEW of 22 century B.C. to 3rd century A.D. During that period, there were more reconstruction phases following events such as events the 62 such

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