Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (9.1997(1998))

In consequence, the work in Marina is mostly structural,
consisting of treatment of the joints, laying the tops of walls and
restoring the colonnades of the house courtyards. It was also
necessary to clean the floors, clear the course of ghost walls, study
the thresholds and even uncover some of the walls closing off
particular rooms. All the walls are cleaned of crumbling mortar, dirt
and vegetation in the joints. A new lime mortar with some white
cement added is introduced into the cleaned joints, the degree of
hardness depending on the condition of the stone. The original
binder, a clay-and-lime mortar with fine-grained local sand in it, is
easily washed out and it is common for the walls to have to be
dismantled down to the first strong mortar, sometimes right down
to the bottom, and reconstructed replacing all the eroded blocks
with new ones along the way.
The outside walls of houses H9 and H9a (fig. 1) were treated
during the season. They were made of broken stone in a clay-and-
lime mortar. Also treated were the partition walls made of stone
slabs set vertically in one course, using a lime mortar, especially in
rooms 2, 3, 9, 10, 12, as well as the walls of the room situated
between houses H9 and H9a. Many of these walls required only
that the joints be restored and the wall tops laid. But the outer walls
necessitated some dismantling. For example, the eastern wall of
House H9a was dangerously inclined. It was impossible, however,
to take it apart and restore it because of the heavily eroded stones
and the big difference of levels between the room spaces that
abutted it. Hence, this wall was reinforced with a new facing
erected immediately in front of the original one, and joined to it
taking advantage of the missing parts in the old structure. The
eastern, southern and western walls originally had niches, now
mostly destroyed, especially in the upper parts; these niches
required restoration of their original layout.

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