I.

Materials

A. Stone
1. stone most important Roman material
2. mortar jointing no longer required careful cutting and shaping
3. great skill to quarry and shape- a lot of nearby stone
4. cappellacio: soft stone- dust of ancient volcanoes
5. destroyed by weather
6. volcanic stone from Alban Hills and lower Apennines
7. blocks fit together tighter along joins on wall if sides tapered toward
back
8. anathyrosis: end faces of block were hollowed so all four edges would
touch
9. vertical joints staggered
10.wall built with two skins of stone
11.mortar used 2nd century BC
B. Mortar and Concrete
1. pozzolana: ash from prehistoric volcanic eruptions (Romans thought it
was sand)
2. ^ strongest when next to volcano
3. wind blew it far away - mixed with other soil
4. Pozzuoli (Puteoli) city in Italy pulvis Puteolanus
5. limestone burnt in kiln
6. mortarium: wooden trough in which mortar was mixed
7. broad-bladed hoe: rutrum
8. cement:
- layer of small stones
- layer of mortar (rammed down to flow between stones)
- more stones
- mortar
- etc.
9. some concrete walls built between wooden faces (shuttering)
10.opus incertum: irregular small blocks of stone

11.opus reticulatum: small pyramid shaped stones in fish net pattern

C. Bricks and Tiles
1. suitable clay baked in sun for 2 years (vitruvius) broken up by water
2. tegulae (roof tiles made of clay) put in kiln
3. tenements collapsed or burned (tiles remained)
4. bricks faced conrete core and formed some bonding-courses (picture in
book)
5. bipedales (formed bonding course) - lies flat
6. bipedales name from brickyard where it was made or man who made it
7. dated by consuls/magistrated for that year
D. Metal and Wood
1. metal for tools, wood for temporary structures
2. iron exported from Britain
3. Romans never discovered liquified iron
4. impurities removed by hammering
5. iron in building only for nails/cramps
6. no steel
7. wood built centring, scaffolding, coffer dams, cranes, waterscrews
8. Ravenna lies entirely on piles of alder
9. larch (larix) is fireproof - Caesar tried to light it in Larignum