Italian/English (upon request either of students or CCdS)
Course Content
The course illustrates the main petrographic and petrochemical characteristics of rocks used as ornamental stone materials and of glass, ceramics, and pigments relevant in Archaeology and Architecture. The main methods of rocks study will be illustrated with the goal of validation from an archaeometric point of view, and for the definition of the areas of origin. The reasons for the physical-chemical degradation once in place and the main recovery and recovery techniques will be defined.
Amoroso G.G., Camaiti M. – Scienza dei materiali e restauro – Alinea Editrice (Firenze, 1997).
Lazzarini L., Tabasso Laurenzi M. - Il restauro della Pietra – Cedam (Padova, 1986).
Primavori P. – Pianeta Pietra – Giorgio Zusi Editore (Verona, 1999).
- Handouts and other didactic materials available through Moodle.
Learning Objectives
Knowledge of the methods of recognition of stone materials for the definition of their nature and origin, for purposes related to cultural heritage (archeology, artistic and architectural heritage).
Prerequisites
Knowledge of Chemistry, Mineralogy, Petrography and Geochemistry.
Teaching Methods
The course in Applied Petrography of Stones consists of lectures and laboratory exercises. The laboratory exercises include 1 formative credit where the basic rudiments for the recognition and characterisation of the geo-materials under the microscope, of their chemical and isotopic characteristics will be provided. Field Trip and on-site visits to archaeological, artistic and architectural sites will be carried out.
Further information
Type of Assessment
The knowledge and skills acquired will be verified through an oral interview, in which the knowledge and skills acquired will be verified.
Course program
The course will be introduced through a brief outline of the characteristics and classification of ornamental stone materials, and of the raw materials used for sintering ceramics and glass; the definition of phase equilibria, through binary and ternary diagrams, useful for understanding sintering mechanisms in ancient and modern glasses and ceramics will be addressed; methods of petrographic, geochemical and isotopic study of stone materials and products derived from them of archaeological, historical, artistic and architectural interest, useful in prevention activities, recovery and enhancement of cultural heritage will be given.
Petro-physical and aesthetic properties of ornamental stone materials will be investigated: i) porosity and permeability, ii) thermal expansion and conductivity, iii) mechanical characteristics, iv) hardness. Degradation of ornamental stone materials, recovery of stone materials in place, cleaning, consolidation, protection, bonding, grouting, replacement.
Traceability of geo-materials used in industry, architecture and cultural heritage will be also addressed.
Eventually the course will give the basics for the study of 1) raw materials of sintering products (e.g., glasses and ceramics); 2) their mineral-chemical-petrographic and isotopic characteristics useful for their characterisation and definition of the areas of origin of artifacts of historical and archaeological value; 3) ancient and modern sintering processes and the thermodynamics of transformations: the phase rule; two and three component systems (the MgO-SiO2 system; the Al2O3-SiO2 system; the CaO-MgO-SiO2 system; the MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 system; the CaO-Na2O-SiO2 system); natural raw materials and transformation processes in the production of glass; composition of the main glasses of historical and archaeological value; petrography and petrochemistry of the raw materials used.