Reinventing Concrete, the Ancient Roman Way

In June, the Italian Ministry of Culture announced the excavation of a new room, not yet open to the public, in the ruins of Pompeii. A few weeks later, a group of archaeologists gathered to marvel at it: walls covered with bright blue paint — an expensive pigment reserved for special rooms — and detailed frescoes of agricultural images remarkably well preserved after almost 2,000 years.

Admir Masic, a chemist at M.I.T., was more captivated by what appeared, to an unschooled guest, like an unremarkable pile of sandy dirt at the edge of the room. The material, light tan and granular, had been a critical component of the Roman Empire, he said: the precursor to concrete, a mainstay of Roman infrastructure, including the aqueducts that brought fresh water to cities like Pompeii.

“They managed to bring water to the city, and with water came hygiene,” Dr. Masic said. “That technological advance allowed them to, first of all, build Rome as it is, but also replicate this anywhere they would go.” He spread his arms as if circumscribing the entire Roman world.

Modern concrete, based on a material known as Portland cement, was developed in England in the 19th century and is the world’s most popular building material by far. It is cheap, strong and standardized, providing engineers everywhere with an easy material for building apartments, dams, skyscrapers and more. But it is much less resilient than the concrete used in Roman times; over the course of decades, it develops cracks that, by letting water in, can eventually destroy the material.

Moreover, the manufacture of concrete is a major driver of climate change, producing 8 percent of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. By learning the secrets of Roman concrete, researchers like Dr. Masic are trying to devise greener, more durable modern options.

“Roman marine concretes have survived in one of the most aggressive environments on Earth with no maintenance at all,” said Marie Jackson, a geologist at the University of Utah.

Via Fix the News

These sacred artefacts were thought lost forever, but one phone call changed everything

There’s just one road that leads to Yuendumu.

The community lies in the heart of Australia’s Tanami Desert, an isolated and arid region of the Northern Territory, around 300 kilometres north of Alice Springs.

The Warlpiri people are the traditional owners of the land and have lived here for thousands of years.

A rugged, 1,000km highway, known as the Tanami track, is the only route in and out.

It’s the same road German researcher Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt travelled when he visited Yuendumu to study its residents in 1972.

Two Warlpiri lore men, Jimmy Jungarrayi Spencer and Banjo Jungarrayi Tex, assisted the professor and his 18-year-old son Bernolf, giving them rare access to their customs and culture.

The Germans left with hours of video footage and photographs, as well as dozens of sacred and culturally significant artefacts, which they’d been given.

More than five decades later, Nelson Tex, the son of late Warlpiri elder Banjo Jungarrayi Tex, says he was shocked to learn his father’s items were on the other side of the world.

“From what I have been told, that researcher came from Germany to Yuendumu many, many years ago and my father was very kind and worked to help him,” Nelson said.

“I think about these objects and am in shock … I’m a bit nervous but I really want to see them.”