Archaeometrical study of mortars from public Roman structures in Verona

The city of Verona, located in the region of Veneto, in the north of Italy, had an important urban development during the Roman age. Due to its strategical position within the territory, the city counted with a particular importance, being this one of the key locations present in the norther territory of the roman empire. It is because of this high status possessed by the city that it counted with several public structures of great significance. Some of these structures, such as the Arena and part of the theatre are still standing, showing the implementation of remarkable construction techniques. This work aims to produce an archaeometrical characterize the mortars used in some of the most relevant constructions. For this purpose, mortar samples were extracted from the capitolium, the roman theatre, the odeum, the curia, the arena and from the city walls surrounding roman Verona. The samples were then analyzed through means such as x-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), colorimetry, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscope coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The obtained results were then analyzed and treated in order to obtain a clear understanding of the mortars present in the aforementioned structures.