Tracing Construction Phases at the Roman Villa Horta da Torre (Fronteira, Portugal): Insights from mortars aggregate s

Abstract

The Roman villa Horta da Torre, built around 3 th 4 th century A.D., is located at Cabeço de Vide (Fronteira, Portugal). To address the construction(s) phase(s), production technolo gy and provenance of materials, a total of 18 samples of mortar walls were collected from Horta da Torre,including renders and fillers. A multi analytical approach to study textural, and mineralogical features of the selected mortars was developed Th is w ork suggests the existence of three construction phases based on their aggregates; gabbroic, granitic, and mixed, used as filling and render at the excavated pars urbana of the villa. study also revealed that the aggregates likely come from two local sourc es; gabbroic river sand from 2 km north of the site and granitic quarry/outcrops 3.5 km south of the site, whereas calcitic lime raw material was available at a distance of within a kilometer of the site