# Investigations on an Ancient Mortar from Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa Archaeological Site, Romania
## Appendix A  
X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns were acquired using an Empyrean X-ray diffractometer (Malvern PANalytical, Cedar Park, TX, USA) with Ni-filtered CuK\(\alpha\) radiation (\(\lambda\) = 1.5418 A). Data collection was conducted over a 20 range of 10\({}^{\circ}\) to 80\({}^{\circ}\), employing a step size of 0.026\({}^{\circ}\) and a counting time of 255 seconds per step. Phase identification was performed using HighScore Plus software (version 3.0.e) in conjunction with the ICDD PDF-4+ 2023 database. Quantitative phase analysis was conducted using the Rietveld refinement method, incorporating a polynomial function for background modeling, a pseudo-Voigt function for peak shape characterization, and the Caglioti function to model peak broadening. A QUANTA INSPECT F (FEI--PHILIPS, Eindhoven, The Netherlands) electron microscope equipped with a field emission gun with 1.2 nm resolution and an energy-dispersive X-ray (EDAX) detector with 133 eV MnK resolution was used to assess the surface morphology of the samples. A Nicolet iS50 FTIR spectrometer equipped with an attenuated total reflection accessory (ATR) from Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA was used to record FTIR spectra in the range 400-4000 cm\({}^{-1}\) with a resolution of 4 cm\({}^{-1}\). An FTIR microscope Nicolet iN10 MX was used to obtain the FTIR 2D maps in the range of 600 to 4000 cm\({}^{-1}\). [PERSON] (Selb, Germany) STA 449C Jupiter equipment was used to investigate the thermal behavior in the dynamic air atmosphere (50 mL/min) for each sample, in the temperature range of 20-1100 \({}^{\circ}\)C, with a heating speed of 10 \({}^{\circ}\)C/min. To evaluate the activity concentrations of naturally occurring radionuclides \({}^{40}\)K, \({}^{238}\)U, \({}^{232}\)Th, and \({}^{226}\)Ra, a low-background coaxial p-type High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector was employed, featuring a relative efficiency of 35% and an energy resolution of 1.85 keV at 1332.5 keV, corresponding to \({}^{60}\)Co. High-resolution gamma spectrometric analysis for natural radionuclides was conducted using a cylindrical plastic container (7.5 cm in diameter and 2.7 cm in height) as the sample geometry. * [PERSON] et al. (2006) [PERSON] [PERSON]; [PERSON] [PERSON]; [PERSON] [PERSON]; [PERSON] Variation of microstructure with carbonation in lime and blended pastes. _Appl. Surf. Sci._**2006**, _252_, 7562-7571. [CrossRef]
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* [PERSON] et al. (2019) [PERSON]; [PERSON]; [PERSON]; [PERSON] [PERSON] Pore Structure and Carbonation of Hydrated Lime Mortar with Mussel Shell Aggregate. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Bio-Based Building Materials, Belfast, UK, 26-28 June 2019. * [PERSON] et al.