Archaeometric approach for the analysis of Sardinian medieval fortified architectures. The case study of Pedres castle in Olbia (13th century)

a chronological benchmark of the medieval fortified architecture. This fortified complex, realized in the first middle of the 13th century, under the influence of the Pisan family of Visconti, exhibits typological and morphological characteristics, masonry techniques and material peculiarities connected to the period in question. The study is part of a wide research, focused on the analysis of historical masonry techniques concerning the medieval fortified heritage of Northern Sardinia (12th-15th centuries). This research based on the application of a multidisciplinary and integrated investigated protocol, aims at the comprehensive knowledge of the fortified structure in exam, from a historical and architectural point of view, through typological analysis and interpretation of the most significant stratigraphy, in order to understand the formal, spatial, dimensional, technological, material and constructive values and to reconstruct the constructive events that characterized its history, also supported by minerological-petrographic examination of natural and artificial stone materials. The aim is to gain the knowledge of the architecture, in order to ensure conservation, restoration, reuse and enhancement activities respectful of its formal, typological, technical-constructive and material peculiarities, as well as to identify valid chronological marks that, as fossils-guides of historical architecture, are able to facilitate the recognition, dating, and therefore the conservation of coeval structures, in particular those concerning the so-called ‘minor architecture’, for which it is generally difficult to define an absolute philological dating.