Foreward to Special Issue Ancient and Modern mortars in Cultural Heritage

The idea of this particular special issue was born in the occasion of the biannual Thematic Conference of AIAr (Archeometric Italian Association) on the topic Research studies on ancient and modern Mortars. The Conference (AMMC 2013 - Ancient and Modern Mortars Conference), held in Florence the 7-8 February 2013, was organized by AIAr in collaboration with Forum Italiano Calce under the patronage of the University of Florence. Entirely organized at national level, it got a significant international response. The AMMC 2013 Conference saw the participation of three foreign guests experts, as invited speakers, in the research field of mortars study: Prof. JohannesWeber of the Institute of Art and Technology/Conservation Sciences, University of Applied Arts Vienna, who talked on “19th Century Cement Mortars under the Microscope”, Prof. John Hughes of the University of the West of Scotland with a lecture entitled “Mortar Characterization: current trends and applications” and Prof. Alf Lindroos of Abo Akademi University of Finland, whose presentation dealt with “Lime mortars as a material for 14C dating”. Oral presentations and posters of the Conference focused on the characterization and analysis of ancient and modern mortars and relating restoration methodologies, and were mainly submitted by researchers belonging to different Italian Universities and Institutes of the National Research Council, as well as Italian Superintendence and Museums. Moreover a significant participation of colleagues from European Institutions, both public and private, was recorded (Ljubljana, Bucharest, Balearic Islands, Prague). The articles published in the present special issue have been selected among the scientific contributions submitted to the AMMC 2013 Conference, and deal with the above reported topics, which are of great interested in the field of Mineralogical-Petrographical Sciences and Cultural Heritage.In the last years, the Periodico di Mineralogia enlarged its field of interest targeting to articles related to Applied Mineralogy, Petrology Geochemistry, Environmental Sciences, Archaeometry and Cultural Heritage Conservation and Protection. This journal will be also in future a reference medium where to publish the results of other applied mineralogists, petrologists and geochemists with different skills and interests, as well as results dealing with basic research activity.