January 13, 2004
Masonry secrets of the Romans
Italian archaeologists have uncovered startling evidence of ancient Roman building techniques by bringing to light a deposit of white, perfectly-preserved slake lime.Read the rest here.Sealed for almost 2,000 years by the collapse of a floor, the lime occupied an entire room at the ground floor of the huge Villa dei Quintili in Rome, once the residence of the emperor Commodus. . .
"The large quantity of lime, along with other materials such as bricks, sand, and fragments of marble, indicates that this part of the estate was a well-equipped building yard," Rita Paris, the state archaeologist responsible for the excavation, told Discovery News.
Posted by David on January 13, 2004 6:18 PM
I find this very intersting. One of the best discovery type of shows was a documentary about a group rebuilding a roman bath house out in a rural area. The sub floor heating. The vented walls and everything.
Thanks for the article
Posted by: gunner on January 13, 2004 8:30 PM
The Riddle of Ancient Roman Concrete:
Dusty ancient history books taught us that Roman concrete consisted of just three parts: a pasty, hydrate lime; pozzolan ash from a nearby volcano; and a few pieces of fist-sized rock. If these parts were mixed together in the manner of modern concrete and placed in a structure, the result certainly would not pass the test of the ages. The riddle plaguing the minds of our concrete specialists . . . how did those Romans around the time of Christ build such elaborate, ageless structures in concrete as seen on the skyline of Rome?
More articles, images, and resources here:
The Roman Pantheon is the largest (43.4m dia.) unreinforced solid concrete dome in the world. It was built by the emperor Hadrian almost 2,000 years ago.
Posted by: Peter Shriner on January 14, 2004 12:01 AM
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