An investigation was undertaken at St. Agata la Vetere church in Catania, dating back to 333 D.C, in order to obtain essential informationfor the planned restoration works. In fact, the 1693 earthquake totally destroyed both the church and the adjoining monastery, which whenrebuilt changed their original appearance enormously.As a preliminary step, a mineralogic petrographic characterization of the materials wascarried out. Optical Microscopy (OM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform InfraredSpectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermo-Gravimetric (TG) analyses were performed on samples of bricks,plasters and mortars. At the same time, ground penetrating radar (GPR) investigations allowed a series of anomalies in the soils to bediscovered which can be attributed to the presence of buried structures under the pavement of the church. Lastly, by collecting and collectivelyinterpreting all the results obtained by in situ drillings and tomographic prospections, it was possible to reproduce the substratum behaviourand to localise areas with electric anomalies confirming the existence of hidden structures.
Geoarcheometric and geophysical methodologies applied to the study of Cultural Heritage: “S Agata La Vetere” in Catania (Sicily-Italy)
BARONE, GERMANA;GRESTA, Stefano;IMPOSA, Sebastiano;
2004-01-01
Abstract
An investigation was undertaken at St. Agata la Vetere church in Catania, dating back to 333 D.C, in order to obtain essential informationfor the planned restoration works. In fact, the 1693 earthquake totally destroyed both the church and the adjoining monastery, which whenrebuilt changed their original appearance enormously.As a preliminary step, a mineralogic petrographic characterization of the materials wascarried out. Optical Microscopy (OM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform InfraredSpectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermo-Gravimetric (TG) analyses were performed on samples of bricks,plasters and mortars. At the same time, ground penetrating radar (GPR) investigations allowed a series of anomalies in the soils to bediscovered which can be attributed to the presence of buried structures under the pavement of the church. Lastly, by collecting and collectivelyinterpreting all the results obtained by in situ drillings and tomographic prospections, it was possible to reproduce the substratum behaviourand to localise areas with electric anomalies confirming the existence of hidden structures.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
