TY - JOUR
T1 - Building with turf at Roman Vindolanda
T2 - Multi-scalar analysis of earthen materials, construction techniques, and landscape context
AU - Russell, Ben
AU - Romankiewicz, Tanja
AU - Gardner, Tom
AU - Birley, Andrew
AU - Snyder, Riley
AU - Beckett, Christopher T. S.
PY - 2021/9/29
Y1 - 2021/9/29
N2 - Turf was widely used as a building material in the Roman period, especially in military architecture. Despite this, few studies have investigated properties of turf in construction, and fewer still have applied micromorphology to ancient turf walls. This study details the methods and results from a combined macro- and micro-scale analysis, using samples from the well-preserved ramparts at Vindolanda, a fort associated with Hadrian’s Wall. Our work not only proposes a refined methodology for the wider geoarchaeological study of turf walls, but also provides new, deeper insight into the properties of turf as a building material.
AB - Turf was widely used as a building material in the Roman period, especially in military architecture. Despite this, few studies have investigated properties of turf in construction, and fewer still have applied micromorphology to ancient turf walls. This study details the methods and results from a combined macro- and micro-scale analysis, using samples from the well-preserved ramparts at Vindolanda, a fort associated with Hadrian’s Wall. Our work not only proposes a refined methodology for the wider geoarchaeological study of turf walls, but also provides new, deeper insight into the properties of turf as a building material.
KW - turf walls
KW - earth-based building materials
KW - geoarchaeology
KW - micromorphology
KW - Roman military constructions
KW - Hadrian's Wall
U2 - 10.1080/00665983.2021.1949148
DO - 10.1080/00665983.2021.1949148
M3 - Article
JO - The Archaeological Journal
JF - The Archaeological Journal
SN - 0066-5983
ER -