Architectural Geology of Paestum, Part 9: The Mighty Triad | Roman Municipal Section, Magna Graecia, Campania, Italy
Looking south-southwestward, over a portion of the site's later, Roman-era construction. We're at the intersection of the north-south Via Sacra and the Decumanus (the main east-west thoroughfare in Roman civic planning).
This very spot can be accessed on Google Earth Street View. It doesn't appear to have changed at all.
I'm glad I took another look at my Paestum slides, because among the ones of the site's magnificent Doric temples I've already posted, I found this seemingly humble shot. It actually contains a lot of architectural geology. In fact, it's a bite-sized showplace of the mighty triad of traditional building materials—stone, brick, and concrete.
Roman Concrete often looks very much like the coarse-grained sedimentary rock known as conglomerate. It has a lumpy, bumpy consistency rarely found in modern equivalents. Nevertheless, it's a much more enduring material, thanks in part to its wondrous binder material, pozzolana derived from central Italy's ample deposits of volcanic tuff.
The low walls at lower right show exposed Roman Concrete, while the pier remnant or pedestal or whatever it is in front of and slightly to the right of the column is a nice example of the most common, long-and--low style of Roman Brick.
The column itself, though, is a splendid example of the locally quarried Paestum Travertine. This is a special type of limestone produced by water flow and deposition in calcium-rich springs.
In the case of the Paestum Travertine, the source was the Capodifiume springs, which since the Pleistocene have generated a sizeable volume of characteristically porous rock that in my own geo-lingo is distinctly bubblaceous. (If you'd like to rent this term for your own journal paper or poster presentation, please contact me and I'll arrange easy terms.)
The bubblaceousness is the result of small pockets of carbon-dioxide that were trapped inside the sediments before they lithified.
No doubt some of the column's vugs and cavities are considerably larger than they were originally, due to centuries of either burial or subaerial weathering. But its drums remain neatly stacked on one another, and still look structurally competent.
The other photos and descriptions of this series are ready for your inspection in my Architectural Geology of Paestum album.
Architectural Geology of Paestum, Part 9: The Mighty Triad | Roman Municipal Section, Magna Graecia, Campania, Italy
Looking south-southwestward, over a portion of the site's later, Roman-era construction. We're at the intersection of the north-south Via Sacra and the Decumanus (the main east-west thoroughfare in Roman civic planning).
This very spot can be accessed on Google Earth Street View. It doesn't appear to have changed at all.
I'm glad I took another look at my Paestum slides, because among the ones of the site's magnificent Doric temples I've already posted, I found this seemingly humble shot. It actually contains a lot of architectural geology. In fact, it's a bite-sized showplace of the mighty triad of traditional building materials—stone, brick, and concrete.
Roman Concrete often looks very much like the coarse-grained sedimentary rock known as conglomerate. It has a lumpy, bumpy consistency rarely found in modern equivalents. Nevertheless, it's a much more enduring material, thanks in part to its wondrous binder material, pozzolana derived from central Italy's ample deposits of volcanic tuff.
The low walls at lower right show exposed Roman Concrete, while the pier remnant or pedestal or whatever it is in front of and slightly to the right of the column is a nice example of the most common, long-and--low style of Roman Brick.
The column itself, though, is a splendid example of the locally quarried Paestum Travertine. This is a special type of limestone produced by water flow and deposition in calcium-rich springs.
In the case of the Paestum Travertine, the source was the Capodifiume springs, which since the Pleistocene have generated a sizeable volume of characteristically porous rock that in my own geo-lingo is distinctly bubblaceous. (If you'd like to rent this term for your own journal paper or poster presentation, please contact me and I'll arrange easy terms.)
The bubblaceousness is the result of small pockets of carbon-dioxide that were trapped inside the sediments before they lithified.
No doubt some of the column's vugs and cavities are considerably larger than they were originally, due to centuries of either burial or subaerial weathering. But its drums remain neatly stacked on one another, and still look structurally competent.
The other photos and descriptions of this series are ready for your inspection in my Architectural Geology of Paestum album.