E.Stone, an Archive for the Sardinia Monumental Witnesses

Abstract

Abstract.The "E.Stone" project is based on the survey, documentation investigation and physical, geochemical and petrographic characterisation of the great zoomorphic and phytomorphic stones of Sardinia. The name chosen to indicate this project means the full value of these stones, standing before the beginning of human history. The main task of this project is to survey and to document, with an accurate laserscan survey, supported by topographical survey and integrated by GPS tracing and photographic and photogrammetric survey and supported by specific investigations on the rock characteristics. The further development of the collected data will be aimed to the definition of a digital "state of the knowledge" about the stone. This research will produce two main benefits: the creation of a clear and stable archive of these monuments and on the second hand will create the possibility to reply at any distance, a copy in any material of the original item.

An archaeometric contribution to the study of ancient millstones from the Mulargia area (Sardinia, Italy) through new analytical data on volcanic raw material and archaeological items from Hellenistic and Roman North Africa

“…In general, most of the Oligo-Miocene ignimbrites were significantly used as building materials from the Neolithic (Verdiani and Columbu, 2010;Columbu et al, 2013) to the Roman (Melis and Columbu, 2000) and the Romanesque-Medieval periods (Macciotta et al, 2001;Columbu et al, 2011Columbu et al, , 2014Coroneo and Columbu, 2010). Nevertheless, only "lithotype 1" is macroscopically very similar to the findings of Roman millstones classically supposed to be from Sardinia in the current archaeological literature.…”

Mineralogical-chemical Alteration and Origin of Ignimbritic Stones Used in the Old Cathedral of Nostra Signora di Castro (Sardinia, Italy)

“…The Church of Nostra Signora di Castro (Figure 2(a, b)) was built with different kinds of local ignimbritic rocks of Late Eocene-Miocene volcanic phase (Beccaluva et al 2011;Lustrino, Duggen, and Rosenberg 2011), whose products occur on vast outcrops (Figures 1 and 3) on several sectors of Sardinia (Figure 1). The ignimbrites were frequently used together with other rocks and ancient mortars to build several historical monuments in the Middle Ages ( Figure 2) as well as in the other ancient periods (Coroneo 1993;Cruciani et al 2010;Verdiani and providing geological samples for any restoration intervention on the monument and to deepen knowledge of the ancient trade of raw materials in the Middle Ages.…”

Archaeometric Approach for Studying Architectural Earthenwares from the Archaeological Site of S. Omobono (Rome-Italy)

“…As demonstrated by numerous scientific studies [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17], these materials bear the potter's mark and enhance our understanding of trade and everyday life in the area in which they were found. For this reason, their archaeometric study, together with the study of natural and artificial stone materials [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], is essential not only for identifying the raw materials and the production technology adopted, but also to obtain information about the history and the evolution of the monument or of the archaeological site analyzed.…”