How do you identify the type of binding agent used for a mortar? How do you choose the right sample for analysis? Can the characteristics Hof a mortar be established on-site?

What are the advantages of mineralogical or microscopic analyses? All these questions and many more that archaeologists may ask about ancient mortars are addressed in this short work. Written for historians by specialists in materials science, it has been designed to a guide them in characterisation methods. It addresses issues relating to the various types of mortars and how to date them, the problems of accuracy and sampling, the analysis methods usable on-site and the methods requiring laboratory processing. Emphasis has been laid on the importance of correctly interpreting the corresponding results and of including them as part of archaeological research. Whence the need for archaeologists always to have the final word.