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Characterization of Historic Mortars Related to the Possibility of Their Radiocarbon Dating, Mikulčice and Pohansko Archaeological Sites

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Conservation and Restoration of Historic Mortars and Masonry Structures (HMC 2022)

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Abstract

The archaeological sites of Mikulčice and Pohansko (South Moravia – the Czech Republic) belong to the oldest and the most important localities of Slavic settlement in Central Europe. A number of historic mortars sampled here were collected in order to study their composition, mortar structural characteristics and raw materials provenance. The aim of this study was not only the comparison and characterisation of the historical mortars from these archaeological sites, but we also evaluated the suitability of these mortars to be dated by 14C analysis.

The samples were characterised by several analytical techniques as polarised light and scanning electron microscopy, thermal analyses or quantitative X-ray diffraction. Stable isotope analyses and cathodoluminescence were also performed. The collected mortars contained a considerable amount of lime particles that can adversely affect the possibility of 14C radiocarbon dating. According to the results of the analyses, the samples from both localities had a similar character. Mortars were very rich in the binder and contained unburnt limestone fragments that occurred frequently. Unburnt fragments were classified mostly as a micritic limestone contained bioclastic fragments. This material was determined as Ernstbrunn limestones according to the composition and structure. Stable isotope analysis also suggested that all studied lime samples came from a single source. The presence of geogenic carbonates (not fully burnt lime) affects the resulting 14C age of the analysed samples fundamentally. The character of mortars leads to a discussion on how to adapt the separating procedures of the individual fractions and avoid geogenic carbon contamination.

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Acknowledgement

The research was carried out with the support of the Czech Ministry of Culture, as a contribution to project DG20P02OVV028. The authors would like to thank the colleagues from the Department of Stable Isotopes of the Czech Geological Survey who carried out the MS analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

    Petr Kozlovcev, Kristýna Kotková, Dita Frankeová, Jan Válek & Alberto Viani

  2. Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jana Maříková-Kubková

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  1. Petr Kozlovcev
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  2. Kristýna Kotková
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  3. Dita Frankeová
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Correspondence to Petr Kozlovcev .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Violeta Bokan Bosiljkov

  2. Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Andreja Padovnik

  3. Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Tilen Turk

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Kozlovcev, P., Kotková, K., Frankeová, D., Válek, J., Viani, A., Maříková-Kubková, J. (2023). Characterization of Historic Mortars Related to the Possibility of Their Radiocarbon Dating, Mikulčice and Pohansko Archaeological Sites. In: Bokan Bosiljkov, V., Padovnik, A., Turk, T. (eds) Conservation and Restoration of Historic Mortars and Masonry Structures. HMC 2022. RILEM Bookseries, vol 42. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31472-8_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31472-8_14

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