The Mezza Spiaggia Tower (Cagliari, Italy): The Dating of Structures by the Metrological–Chronological Analysis of Masonry and the Petro-Geochemical Stratigraphy of Building Materials

Abstract

This study is part of a more extensive research aimed at examining a number of important defence towers in and around Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. These towers form part of Sardinia’s historic coastal defence system, dating to a period between the early sixteenth and the late seventeenth century (Fois 1981; Montaldo 1992; Pillosu 1957; Russo 1992). These historically and architecturally distinctive towers were originally built for defence purposes; however, since the nineteenth century when they no longer performed this function, they have declined into disuse and abandonment.