In Memory of Overcoming the Enemy: The Southern Italian Folk Tradition of the ‘One Hundred Crosses’

This article focuses on a cross-cultural folk practice which is based on a textual charm and referred to as Cento Croci (One Hundred Crosses). By comparing and contrasting three separate versions from three different southern Italian regions, this article demonstrates that the Cento Croci tradition is used to address a universal and enduring safety need by memorializing the defeat of an enemy in a past event which can be traced back to the Crusades. This reason for the practice of the Cento Croci tradition is unaltered by cultural variations which are characteristically superficial.     

Interpretation of the Thermogravimetric Curves of Ancient Pozzolanic Concretes

Pozzolanic concretes submitted to thermogravimetric (TG) analysis show a continuous weight loss starting from about 400 °C. In order to reconcile these observations with those from other analytical methods, it is necessary to attribute this weight loss to CO₂ removal. It has been proposed, in the literature, that silicates and CaCO₃ react at lower temperatures, producing calcium silicates and CO₂. In this paper, the FTIR spectra collected on samples submitted to TG analysis, stopped at conveniently selected temperatures, provide direct evidence that the continuous weight loss recorded with thermogravimetric analysis of the pozzolanic concrete in the temperature range 400–900 °C is to be attributed to the reaction between the silicates and calcite, with the formation of CO₂ and of a silicate that is richer in CaO. Therefore it is justifiable that the whole weight loss, in the temperature range 400–900 °C, should be taken into account in the calculation of the CaCO₃ content of the concrete. Moreover, the described procedure—of recovering small samples (2 mg) from the sample‐holder of the TG apparatus at various steps of the heating rate and comparing the FTIR spectra—can help in identifying the pozzolanic nature of a concrete that, in general, is not easily recognizable from the trend of the thermoanalytical curve.