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Volume 102 No. 2
April 1998
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Building Trajan's Markets
Lynne Lancaster
This paper examines the use of two building techniques at Trajan's Markets: "bonding" courses of bipedales and brick linings used as formwork for vaulting. The distribution of these two techniques provides evidence for the distribution of the workforce and the organization of the building site. The pattern of the bonding courses suggests that they were used as organizational tools by setting certain key heights and in at least one case by providing a "benchmark" level to which all walls were brought before proceeding. The pattern and detailing of the brick formwork used for the vaulting in some parts of the Markets suggest that the vaults (and possibly the walls) of at least two groups of rooms may have been contracted out to a particular crew of builders. Evidence from the changes in the pattern of the bonding courses, however, suggests that the way in which work was assigned may have varied from one part of the monument to another.
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