

Caričin Grad is an archeological site dating back to VI century, located in the vicinity of present day Leskovac, Serbia. The city is the legacy of the famous early Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. The city, in the town planning terms, is divided into three large units. Acropolis, Middle town and Lower town, connected by the suburban area. The grandeur and importance of the city are witnessed by the remenants of several lines of city walls, planned street network, cisterns, thermae, aqueduct and sewage, numerous sacral buildings, administrative structures and housing architecture. Considering the complexity of the city, in town planning and architectonic terms, and diversity of building types in it, the mortars taken for analyses were collected from various types of buildings: from housing, public buildings, fortifications and from the aqueduct structure. In the paper, basic physical properties, as well as mineralogic, morphologic and chemical features of the sampled mortars were examined. The testing was performed using optical and scanning electron microscopy, XRF semi-quantitative analysis and XRD (x-ray diffraction). Based on the mentioned analyses, it was concluded that the main binder in the mortar was pulverized brick, which activated its pozzolanic activity. In addition, as an auxiliary binder, there was limestone powder, considering that the mortar contained the crushed limestone aggregates as well. The detected aggregate grains are the river aggregate, pieces of bricks and fine crushed limestone aggregate. These results would be further used for making the mix designs of repair mortars. © 2022, Fundatia Serban Solacolu. All rights reserved.
Momčilović-Petronijević, A.J.; University of Nis, The Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Aleksandra Medvedeva 14, Nis, Serbia;
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