Stone materials and construction technology in the Piscinnì tower (South-western Sardinia, Italy): archaeometric investigations and digital survey

The tower of Piscinnì (WGS84: 38°54′15″N 8°46′40″E) is located within a beautiful coastal enclave on the coast of Teulada (South-western Sardinia). The mighty building stands on a promontory dominating the wild and suggestive panorama of the beach surrounded by Mediterranean vegetation. It was built at the end of the XVI century and still stands out for its size and conservation state. It had great strategic importance since it was meant to guard both the landing area towards the valley behind, and the homonymous pond, exploited in the XVI century by the merchant Pietro Porta as a fish reserve. In the Spanish period (between the XVI and XVII centuries), the tower was reinforced and guarded by an armed garrison. The area was previously frequented by the Punic and Roman people, who set up several sandstone and conglomerate quarries, used to build the villages and port structures of the various coastal settlements, e.g., Bithia (near to Chia village). The tower of Piscinnì is set in a very lively jagged coastline, characterized by rapid transitions from one landscape to another: from fine-grained, whitish sand beaches (as the not-so-far renowned Tuerredda and Capo Malfatano) to gravelly coves, from “rias” and ponds to high cliffs of intrusive magmatic (e.g. granitoids) and metamorphic rocks. The research involves several interdisciplinary work phases: 1) petrographic and physical-mechanical analysis of the building materials (stones and mortars) to understand their state of conservation, durability and their source in the surrounding area; 2) digital survey of the tower using photogrammetric techniques and 3d Laser Scanner technology to define the geometric structural aspects; 3) stylistic-architectural analysis of the building and the load-bearing structures to understand the technologies and construction phases and any static-structural criticalities.