Pebbles

The paper presents a research on a masonry building typology, formed by pebbles stones with brick courses, well known and spread in a wide area in Northern Italy, but never studied in depth. The sample of buildings selected for this work is located in Vimercate area, near Milan, where it has been possible to lay out a diachronic scheme of the geometrical features characterizing the listed masonry: dimensions of component materials, distance between the courses, etc. The studied sample included different buildings typologies, like churches, civil houses, palaces and villas, realized with brick stripes and pebble stones. Crossing historical information coming from different authors with the surveyed textures, a relationship between this technique and its mechanical characteristics was investigated. Therefore, it has been possible to observe the trends of the technique, referring to an optimal ratio between the thickness of the wall and the distance among brick stripes, as well some archaeometric data on the production and supply of bricks in the area through time.

The article for the first time publishes the Scythian barrow 17 of the "Sluiceway" group near Glinoe village, Slobodzeya district, on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. This mound did not contain a burial structure and was surrounded by a ditch. Similar Scythian complexes are known throughout the Northern Black Sea region, but they are not numerous everywhere (the left bank of the Lower Danube, the left bank of the Lower Dniester, and the NorthWest Azov region). The analysis of the available information shows that some of these barrows could be used as symbolic burials-cenotaphs. At the same time, other similar structures, obviously, were "public" cult areas for holding commemorative feasts. These areas were located close to barrows containing Scythian graves.