HISTORY

Knossos, by Shadowgate on Flickr  Some rights reserved.

Aphrodite, Pompeii    Public domain

Since the beginning of humanity natural resources such as lime and gypsum have been used for artistic expression and the decoration of surroundings. By 6,000 B.C., as agriculture began to spread westward into Europe and the first use of brick appeared in Turkey, lime and gypsum began to be used as a binder.  Evidence of its early use, typically in the form of plaster, was used to coat walls and floors in sites such as Ain Ghazal (Jordan), Yiftah (Israel), and Abu Hureyra (Syria.)

Lime mortar was not widely used until it was adopted by the Greeks and later the Romans around the 1,000 B.C. Prior to this time, lime mortar was more commonly used as a plaster as seen at the pyramids of Khufu, Keops or Kefren. The Greeks used lime broadly in construction, as a wall mortar in frescoes, foundations, and baths and they started to incorporate additives to the mortar in order to provide strength and flexibility. These early hydraulic mortars were created by using lime and volcanic ash from the island of Santorini.  The best preserved samples date from the Minoico Period such as the Knossos Palace in Crete.

Roman civilization contributed to the development of lime techniques, fabrication and application of stucco, popularizing and spreading the art throughout the empire. The construction treaty by Roman architect Vetruvio in 1 BC still is a basic reference on the subject with extensive descriptions of mixtures of mortars and coating techniques of the moment.

The Romans’ mortars owed their exceptional quality to the care of how they selected the components, to the perfect conditions of slaking the limestone, as well as the homogeneous nature of the material and the right proportion of the mixes. All of these factors came together with the meticulous application, making these Roman mortars the best example of the use of lime in construction.

This approach continued largely unchanged through the Medieval period with a revival of interest in the 15^th and 16^th centuries.  The use of lime disappeared drastically with the discovery of natural hydraulic lime and especially Portland cement at the end of the 19^th century.  Due to their resistance and rigidity, these have quickly replaced the lime in favor of modern construction, more and more vertical. It is at the beginning of the 21^st century that the effectiveness of the techniques with lime return to win interest, when it has been proven that cement gives bad results in restoration.  Parallel to this, our tendencies toward an ecological healthful habitat, respectful to the environment have emerged, where lime can play a very important role.