Opus signinum ('cocciopesto' in modern Italian) is a building material used in ancient Rome. It is made of tiles broken up into very small pieces, mixed with mortar, and then beaten down with a rammer.[1] Pliny the Elder in his Natural History describes its manufacture: "Even broken pottery has been utilized; it being found that, beaten to powder, and tempered with lime, it becomes more solid and durable than other substances of a similar nature; forming the cement known as the "Signine" composition, so extensively employed for even making the pavements of houses."[2] Pliny's use of the term "Signine" references "Signia (modern Segni), the name of a town in Latium which was famous for its tiles."[3]
Origins, spread, disuse
The technique, most probably invented by the Phoenicians, is documented in the early 7th cent. BC at Tell el-Burak (Lebanon),[4] then in Phoenician colonies in North Africa, some time before 256 B.C., and spread north from there to Sicily and finally to the Italian peninsula.[5][6] Floors of signinum are found extensively in the Punic towns of North Africa and commonly in the Hellenistic houses on Sicily.[7] While some signinum pavements have been found in Rome, the technique is not common there.[8] Vitruvius describes the process of laying a floor, whether signinum or mosaic.[9] The trend began in the 1st century BC, proliferating in private homes as well as public buildings.[10] By the 2nd century, opus signinum would give way to more patterned styles of pavement.
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