A. Daneels, M. Mateu, Hugo Fernández, Salvador Piña, H. Cabadas-Báez
{"title":"Soil modification in the manufacturing process of Mesoamerican earthen architecture","authors":"A. Daneels, M. Mateu, Hugo Fernández, Salvador Piña, H. Cabadas-Báez","doi":"10.18268/bsgm2022v74n3a080422","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a micromorphological analysis of a sample series from three Mesoamerican earthen architecture sites. It compares a soil, a sample from a construction fill and a sample of a soil mixture used for mud-brick and facing, resulting from different manufacturing steps. The purpose is to identify the soil features that remain and those that are transformed in the process. This is of interest both to geologists, who encounter anthropically modified soils, and archaeologists interested in understanding the provenance of the raw materials and the manufacturing processes. In contrast to previous research based predominantly on earthen architecture from Europe and the Near East, this study is the first comparative analysis of Mesoamerican sites, where earthen construction developed independently from the Old World, using volcanic soils developed in a range of tropical environments. The results show that similar building techniques existed in different environments, that the non-expansive clays and fine fraction derived from volcanic deposits may have presented advantages for construction, while some features reflect the addition of mineral or vegetal temper to improve the mechanical properties of some soils.","PeriodicalId":48849,"journal":{"name":"Boletin De La Sociedad Geologica Mexicana","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Boletin De La Sociedad Geologica Mexicana","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.18268/bsgm2022v74n3a080422","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"GEOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper presents a micromorphological analysis of a sample series from three Mesoamerican earthen architecture sites. It compares a soil, a sample from a construction fill and a sample of a soil mixture used for mud-brick and facing, resulting from different manufacturing steps. The purpose is to identify the soil features that remain and those that are transformed in the process. This is of interest both to geologists, who encounter anthropically modified soils, and archaeologists interested in understanding the provenance of the raw materials and the manufacturing processes. In contrast to previous research based predominantly on earthen architecture from Europe and the Near East, this study is the first comparative analysis of Mesoamerican sites, where earthen construction developed independently from the Old World, using volcanic soils developed in a range of tropical environments. The results show that similar building techniques existed in different environments, that the non-expansive clays and fine fraction derived from volcanic deposits may have presented advantages for construction, while some features reflect the addition of mineral or vegetal temper to improve the mechanical properties of some soils.
期刊介绍:
The Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana is a completely free-access electronic journal published semi-annually that publishes papers and technical notes with its main objective to contribute to an understanding of the geology of Mexico, of its neighbor areas, and of geologically similar areas anywhere on Earth’s crust. Geology has no boundaries so we may publish papers on any area of knowledge that is interesting to our readers.
We also favor the publication of papers on relatively unfamiliar subjects and objectives in mainstream journals, e.g., papers devoted to new methodologies or their improvement, and areas of knowledge that in the past had relatively little attention paid them in Mexican journals, such as urban geology, water management, environmental geology, and ore deposits, among others. Mexico is a land of volcanos, earthquakes, vast resources in minerals and petroleum, and a shortage of water. Consequently, these topics should certainly be of major interest to our readers, our Society, and society in general. Furthermore, the Boletín has been published since 1904; that makes it one of the oldest scientific journals currently active in Mexico and, most notably, its entire contents, from the first issue on, are available online.