Terrazzo is among the earliest building techniques of humans, dating to 9500 BCE. Terrazzo is an aggregate of crushed stone with a binder such as viscous lime or clay. In Neolithic times terrazzo flooring is a practical way to use limestone quarry rock debris.
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An early use of terrazzo flooring is found at the prehistoric settlement and cult center Gobekli Tepe in Turkey. The people quarry limestone bedrock for use in building. The site is famous for T-shaped megaliths, some as tall as twenty feet and weighing several tons.
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Gobekli Tepe is composed of a group of large buildings with smaller adjoining rooms. The rectangular rooms, windowless and doorless have floors of polished fired lime similar in technique to later Roman terrazzo flooring.
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Lime as mortar and the multiple uses of limestone products go back to the prehistoric times of Homo sapiens. It's among the first chemical reactions known by early humans. Limestone and its products are forms of the chemical compound calcium carbonate.
Calcium carbonate is the major component of aragonite, calcite, chalk, lime, limestone, marble, oyster shells, ostrich egg shells and pearls. The ingredients can be cut, crushed, or pulverized and chemically altered with a process of thermal decomposition.
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Archaeologists use the term terrazzo to describe floors of early Neolithic buildings c. 9000 - 8000 BCE in West Asia. In the settlement of Çayönü in eastern Turkey, about 90 m2 (970 sq ft) of terrazzo floors are discovered.
Other sites showing evidence of terrazzo techniques include Jericho and Cyprus. Early terrazzo flooring consists of burnt lime (quicklime) embedded with crushed limestone and clay. It may be colored red with ochre. Broken or crushed pottery can also be used.
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Crushed limestone gives it a mottled look. Use of fire to produce burnt lime, which is also a medium for hafting implements in prehistoric times, predates the production of fired pottery by c. 1000 years.
Also called lime-burning, the process liberates a molecule of carbon dioxide, leaving the element quicklime. This is one of the few chemical reactions known in prehistoric times.
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Adding water to burnt lime creates slaked lime or hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide). The hydration process called "slaking of lime".
A sedimentary rock, made of organic materials, limestone exists throughout the world in various compositions and manifestations. In natural formations it's hard enough for building but soft enough to cut from bedrock and rock faces with flint tools.
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The word limestone comes from the Latin limus, or mud. In the lime industry, limestone is the source of lime and a general term for rocks with 80% or more calcium or magnesium carbonate. These include marble, chalk, oolite, and marl.
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Uncommon sources of lime include coral, sea shells, calcite and ankerite. Further classification is done by composition as high calcium, argillaceous (clay-like), silicious, conglomerate, magnesian (high level of magnesium), dolomite, and other limestones.
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Porous limestone formations such as chalk, talc and calcite appear at the earth's surface, often revealed by natural weathering. Fancy harder limestones include marble, beloved by the Roman Empire. Marble is thrust up to the surface of the earth by seismic action.
Burning or calcination of calcium carbonate in a lime kiln at over 900 °C (1,650 °F) converts it into the caustic material burnt lime, unslaked lime or quicklime (calcium oxide) by thermal decomposition.
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The Great Sphinx at Giza, Egypt, is carved from a single limestone block. Between its paws is a Dream Stele, explaining a dream by Prince Thutmose. In it, the statue complains of neglect.
It tells Thutmose he'll become Pharaoh if he restores the glory of the Sphinx. In ancient Egypt, dreams are media of spiritual divination and connection with the gods. Thutmose cleans and restores the Sphinx, and becomes Pharaoh in 1401 BCE.
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The early Egyptians are known to use terrazzo and mosaic techniques. Generally speaking mosaic is made of evenly shaped colored tiles, glass or beads laid into a soft base with the purpose of creating a design, pattern or picture.
Terrazzo artisans create floors, tiles, walls, panels and patios by scattering and pressing marble chips and other fine aggregates into a surface such as finished concrete or lime putty. Preliminary work of terrazzo workers is similar to that of cement masons.
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Marble-chip, cementitious terrazzo requires three layers of materials. To begin, cement masons or terrazzo workers build a solid, level concrete foundation 3 - 4 inches (76 - 102 mm) deep.
The forms are removed from the foundation and workers add a 1 in (25 mm) of sandy concrete. Before this layer sets, terrazzo workers partially embed metal divider strips in the concrete wherever there is to be a joint or change of color in the terrazzo.
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For the last layer, terrazzo workers blend a fine stone chip mortar mix which may contain color pigment. Marble is a favorite stone. While it's still wet, workers add more stone chips into each panel and roll a weight of 100 - 125 lb (45 - 57 kg) over the entire surface.
Depending on the depth and layers added, flooring, tiles and decor can take up to 90 days to dry completely. Once thoroughly dry they can be glazed or polished. The process takes time, but in some places such as Cayönü Tepesi, Turkey, it remains after 12,000 years.
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What is Roman terrazzo?
"In ancient Rome, terrazzo was used to create durable and decorative floors for public buildings, bathhouses, and villas. These floors were made using a combination of lime, crushed marble, and water.
The mixture was then poured onto the floor and smoothed out to create a flat surface. The surface was then polished to a high shine."
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The early mortars of masonry are made of mud and clay. They're found in the buildings of Jericho dating c. 10,000 BCE and in c. 8th millennium BCE construction at Ganj Dareh, Iran.
Another early concrete or mortar comes from the ancient Egyptians. They use a mixture of mud, straw and gypsum to build pyramids, the oldest built over 4500 years ago. At one time the pyramids are covered with smooth limestone facing and shine brilliant white.
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Difference between concrete and cement? Concrete is made of cement (a binding agent of limestone and clay), water, sand, and gravel mixed in different proportions. Mortar consists of cement, water, and lime aggregate.
In ancient Rome and Greece, lime mortar is a masonry mortar, made of lime and an aggregate like sand, mixed with water. It gradually replaces the clay and gypsum mortars common to ancient Egyptian construction.
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In an agricultural context, lime refers to agricultural lime, which today is finely crushed raw limestone not produced in a lime kiln. Otherwise lime most commonly means slaked lime, quicklime or burnt lime.
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