Historic Barrel Vaults Undergoing Differential Settlements

ABSTRACT

A principal reason of damage in historic masonry vaults consists in relative displacements of the vaults’ abutments. Excluding the case of seismic-induced damage, cracks are often produced by differential settlements generated by the lateral wall instability or soil degradation (e.g., due to stress concentrations, non-uniform soil stratigraphy, flooding phenomena etc.). When dealing with historic vaults, the effects of long-term deformation processes cannot often be linked directly to causes, which may also be unknown. In this article, the effects of differential settlements on historic masonry barrel vaults are investigated. An efficient 3D contact-based model was developed to reproduce experiments on a scaled pointed barrel vault (representative of a typology of late-medieval barrel vaults in Scotland) under non-uniform differential settlement. First, the numerical model is used to simulate the experimental campaign, achieving good agreement in terms of crack pattern (longitudinal shear) and transverse-longitudinal deformation profiles. Then, further analyses are carried out to gain insight on the effects of several plausible uniform and non-uniform settlement patterns on representative historic barrel vaults. Various settlement configurations were analysed and complex failure patterns observed. This study could help analysts in understanding the nature of on-going deformation process in historic masonry vaults and engineers in the design of strengthening strategies.     

Architecture and Urbanism in the Fortified Settlement of Pech Maho (Sigean,France) in the Third Century BC: A Social and Economic Perspective

This paper offers a synthesis of the urbanism and architecture of Pech Maho (Sigean) from a social and economic point of view. Its aim is to highlight the specificities of this settlement in the context of the Late Iron Age between south France and north‐east Spain. During the third century BC, this small site had an impressive defensive system, as well as quite a complex urban framework. The constructed blocks excavated so far show a predominance of multicellular buildings that testify to a wide range of ground plans. Most of the spaces seem to have been devoted to specialized activities of a clear economic orientation, whilst other buildings or spaces have a strong symbolic nature. Rooms used exclusively for domestic tasks are in the minority, while a large dwelling in the central area appears to have been a private residential unit. All of this suggests that Pech Maho would have been an economic centre, as well as the residence of an elite that would have exerted control over the productive and trading activities, in a context that clearly evokes that of an emporion.     

The Emergence of Chariots and Riding in the South Caucasus

Summary.   The beginning of the Late Bronze Age, i.e. the late fifteenth–early fourteenth centuries BC, saw the emergence of chariots in Transcaucasia, where rich barrows of this period yielded bronze chariot models. The latter correspond to the type of chariots widespread in the western Near East in the late sixteenth–early thirteenth centuries BC. Hence it can be inferred that, regardless of the ultimate origin of Near Eastern chariots, Transcaucasian specimens belong to the Near Eastern tradition. However, in Transcaucasia, in contradistinction to the Near East, the chariot was merely a prestige marker. The growing role of the horse indicative of horseback riding is attested by some Transcaucasian funeral complexes of the late second millennium BC, which correspond to those of the steppes of south Russia. It seems likely that the builders of these barrows were related to the Iranian population of the Russian steppes.