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The pavement layers of the Southwest Church of Umm el-Jimal, Jordan: stratigraphy and archaeometric characterization

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Abstract

The article focuses on the stratigraphy of the late Byzantine pavement of the Southwest Church, Umm el-Jimal, Jordan and the production technology of their mortars by applying thin section petrography, x-ray diffractometry (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS). Investigations revealed the similarity between the studied pavement and standard Roman mosaic pavements. The pavement consists of four layers (statumen, rudus, nucleus and bedding), but lacks the tessellatum layer. The statumen was constructed using large stones and then leveled by soil and pebbles, while the other three layers are composed of lime-based mortars formed by two different recipes. The white-beige non-hydraulic mortar of the bedding layer consists of a lime binder and aggregates of scoria and organic fibers, and a Binder:Aggregate (B:A) ratio of 1:2. The grey hydraulic mortars of the rudus and nucleus are mixtures of lime and silica-rich silt/clay, fine sand, volcanic rocks, ceramics, and charcoal; and B:A ratios of 1:4. The rudus and nucleus mortars have high values of hydraulic and cementation indices, reflecting their hydraulic properties, which most probably originated from the reaction between lime, ceramic and volcanic inclusions. In contrast, lack of ceramic and absence of the reactions between lime and scoria of the bedding layer probably produced a mortar with low values of hydraulic and cementation indices, but durable and resistant to weight load.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Humboldt Foundation for supporting this research and the Curt-Engelhorn‐Zentrum Archäometrie gGmbH CEZA for hosting the first author and allowing use of their facilities to conduct the research. We are also grateful to Dr. Christoph Berthold and Dr. Silvia Amicone (University of Tübingen) for performance of the XRD analysis.

Funding

The first author was funded by fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Germany and hosted by the CEZA Archaeometry Center (CurtEngelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie gGmbH), Germany.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Yarmouk University, Postal code 211-63, Irbid, Jordan

    Khaled Al-Bashaireh

  2. Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie gGmbH, Mannheim, Germany

    Ivan Stepanov

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  1. Khaled Al-Bashaireh
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  2. Ivan Stepanov
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Contributions

Al-B.K wrote the main manuscript text and prepared figures. I.S Edited the manuscript and added some paragraphs, prepared Fig. 10, carried out the SEM-EDS analysis.

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Correspondence to Khaled Al-Bashaireh.

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Al-Bashaireh, K., Stepanov, I. The pavement layers of the Southwest Church of Umm el-Jimal, Jordan: stratigraphy and archaeometric characterization. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 16, 63 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-024-01964-z

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