Overview of the 100 Mortars Project at the archaeological site of Herculaneum

Abstract eng:
The Herculaneum Conservation Project is a public-private initiative to conserve and enhance the Roman city of Herculaneum, Italy. Emphasis is placed on simplifying and reducing costs of archaeological site management by reinstating site infrastructure, promoting rolling programmes of maintenance, and research and trials to improve conservation methods. After preliminary research in the site archives, the 100 Mortars Project is now underway and aims to study the wide range of mortars present in the archaeological site – both original Roman mortars and those used in twentieth-century restoration campaigns. More than one hundred mortars have been sampled for analysis so far and it is hoped that in a few years almost a complete range of ancient and modern mortars from Herculaneum will be available. This will not only increase knowledge about the site but will also contribute to the conservation of Herculaneum and other open-air archaeological sites, thanks to the development of works strategies that consider quality, cost and time parameters when working with each type of mortar identified. This paper reviews the results obtained so far.

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