Beaten earth floor in Pompeii between history and technology Pavimentazioni in battuto di terra a Pompei tra storia e tecnologia

This research aims to highlight, starting from a historical analysis of the Pompeian Road network, the use of the technological solution of the beaten earth. Particular attention is paid to this pavement’s solution because various stratifications study that followed one another in the years preceding the most famous Plinian eruption that buried Pompeii. The reading of the vertical strati-fications of beaten, shows high compactness and hardness, which preludes to characteristics of good resistance to stress. In addition, the tests document traces of wear induced by the passage of the wagons and offer the possibility of relating the number of layers overlapped with the time between the laying of the first beaten on the ground of the paleosoil and 79 AD.