Opus craticum explained

Opus craticum or craticii is an ancient Roman construction technique described by Vitruvius in his books De architectura as wattlework which is plastered over. It is often employed to construct partition walls and floors.^[1] Vitruvius disparaged this building technique as a grave fire risk, likely to have cracked plaster, and not durable.^[2] Surviving examples were found in the archaeological excavations at Pompeii and more so at Herculaneum, buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and excavated beginning in 1929.

Scholarly confusion exists^[3]

Notes and References

1. Book: Berry, Joanne. Pompeya. Ediciones AKAL. 2009. 978-84-460-2928-1. Madrid. 68.
2. Vitruvius, De Architectura, Book II, Chapter 8, paragraph 20. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/2*.html#8.20
3. Web site: House of the Opus Craticium. 2012-04-14. 2012-05-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20120528131631/http://sites.google.com/site/ad79eruption/herculaneum-1/insula-iii-2/house-of-the-opus-craticium. live.
4. Book: Lavan, Luke. Housing in Late Antiquity - Volume 3.2: From Palaces to Shops. Özgenel. Lale. Sarantis. Alexander. BRILL. 2007. 978-90-474-2327-0. Leiden. 295.
5. Book: Ulrich, Roger B.. Roman Woodworking. Yale University Press. 2008. 978-0-300-10341-0. New Haven, CT. 99.
6. Ulrich, Roger Bradley. Roman woodworking. New Haven [CT: Yale University Press, 2007.</ref><ref>Adam, Jean Pierre. Roman building: materials and techniques. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. 239, photo shows wall with a caption naming the wall as ''opus craticium'' with an infill of ''opus incertum''</ref> since the term ''opus craticium'' is also used for the Roman building technique very similar, but not identified as being directly related to [[Timber framing|half-timbering]], a timber framework with the wall infill of stones in mortar called opus incertum. An example of this technique is the House of Opus Craticum in Herculaneum.^{[3] [4]} This building, which was constructed some time in the first century or earlier, was reconstructed at Herculaneum's Insula III, nos. 13, 14, and 15.^[5]

   The opus craticum was not a Roman invention as variations of the technique is also found elsewhere in ancient Mediterranean. Before the Romans, the Minoans, Etruscans, and Greeks are known to have used similar building techniques. At least since the 13th century, this type of construction, common in Europe, was called half-timbered in English, Fachwerk (framework) in German, entramado de madera in Spanish, and colombage in French.

   References