Experimental and analytical interpretation of the mechanical behaviour of an earth material from an Afghan Architectural Heritage

The paper is dedicated to the results of an experimental campaign to characterise the earthen material coming from the archaeological Buddhist site of Mes Aynak, Afghanistan, to undertake future conservation actions. The analysis focused on the study of the earth of an adobe taken from the 007 site of the Mes Aynak archaeological area, reporting the results of determining the grain size distribution test through a dry sieving analysis and a complete mechanical test analysis. The results were commented on and compared with those obtained from the same analyses carried out on Earth samples from an Italian site with a tradition of earth construction.