BUILDING MATERIALS AND
TECHNIQUES
MATERIALS
Stone
- Basalt (dark gray): street pavement; fountains; thresholds
- Black lava: walls of Theatrum Tectum, Macellum
- Sarno limestone (light gray, porous, marine inclusions): House of the
Surgeon;
frequently employed in opus incertum facings
- Nocera tufa (warm brown to gray): large ashlar blocks as in the
facade of the House of the Faun; some impluvia; columns, as the
Porticus of Popidius
at south end of forum; small blocks for wall ends and for opus vittatum
mixtum; opus reticulatum; column capitals (sometimes sculptured)
- Yellow tufa (softer and more porous than Nocera tufa): opus
reticulatum,
opus vittatum mixtum, heterogenous construction
- Caserta limestone (white; much finer than Sarno limestone): forum
colonnade;
forum paving; steps and lower podium facing of the Temple of Fortuna
Augusta;
some fountains
- Cruma (dark red solidified volcanic foam; irregularly shaped) used
randomly
in walls
- Marble (white from Luna [Carrara]; colored marble imported from outside
Italy): veneer, or revetment, for walls; impluvia;
stylobate facing in Eumachia Building;
columns in front of the Macellum
Terracotta
Roof tiles, drain pipes, down spouts, compluvia water spouts.
Brick
Facing of Roman concrete (opus caementicium)walls, especially at
corners
of buildings and doorposts; columns in Basilica; compound piers of Porticus
Tulliana
Wood
Stairs, doors, joists, rafters, various uses in construction. Not preserved
at Pompeii; sometimes carbonized at Herculaneum.
Metal
Bronze: clamps for marble revetment; clamps for attaching bronze statues
to bases (e.g., sculpture gallery in front of the Macellum).
- Lead: water pipes
TECHNIQUES
(not a complete list)
Ashlar (opus quadratum)
Large, regularly cut blocks of stone (tufa,
limestone, marble) laid in regular courses; House of the Surgeon;
House of the Pansa; facades on via del Mercurio Construction in small
blocks.
Small-block Construction
Small, regularly
cut blocks (Nocera tufa, Sarno limestone, yellow tufa) laid in regular courses as door jambs,
compound piers, or sides of niches. Small-block construction typically is quoined
to another technique, such as opus incertum. Not used for long stretches of
wall. Holconian crypta of the theater, compound piers of the south and east
walls of the Eumachia Building, statue niches of the Temple of Fortuna
Augusta.
Limestone framework
Roman concrete
(opus caementicium). A mixture of sand, water,
lime, and volcanic dust (pozzolana--pulvis puteolanus), with small
stones
and sometimes broken tiles added to form a core, or aggregate; faced with
stone
or brick.
Architectural rubble
The use of damaged pieces of architecture, usually tufa elements, such as
column
drums, capitals, and wall blocks, in the construction or repair of walls. The
presence of architectural rubble may be an indication that the wall or repair
date to the post-62 period.
Coigning/Quoining
A technique of uniting two different materials in an interlocking pattern;
used at doorways and at the corners of buildings.
Macellum, south door; Theatrum Tectum, exterior east wall (for a very
unusual pattern)
Decorative wall, vault, and column treatments
Decorative floor treatments
- Opus Sectile (cut stone pavement in various colors): cella of the
Temple of Apollo; fauces, impluvium, and
tablinum pavements of the House of
the Faun
- Mosaic (cubes of colored stone, called tesserae, for
pavements or for walls (including fountains); in the latter the tesserae are often of glass paste
