In situ characterization of archaeological adobe bricks

Abstract The present paper deals with the in situ mechanical characterization of 2000 years old adobe bricks from the archaeological site of Nisa Partica in Turkmenistan. For this purpose, a portable instrument was designed to perform compression, three point bending, and ‘Brazilian’ tests. This simple instrument allowed in situ measurement of compressive and tensile strengths of the material, providing stress–strain curves that have been used to calibrate simple constitutive relationships. Finally, bricks were mineralogically and petrographically characterized. The paper shows that with simple tools it is possible to measure the main mechanical properties of adobe bricks even in critical in situ conditions.