Not convinced those Roman concrete studies are telling the whole story

I watched a core sample from a harbor wall in Pozzuoli get tested three different ways over five years and each method gave a different date range, so maybe we should stop acting like we've cracked the secret to ancient concrete durability.

3 comments

3 Comments

kimw573d ago

Yeah the whole 'cracked the secret to ancient concrete durability' thing feels premature. A buddy of mine in materials lab said their team got three wildly different results from the same batch of Roman mortar dust.

blair_chen813d ago

@kimw57 so their secret was just making it up as they went along?

jenny1983d ago

Borrowed a core sample from a buddy who works in a materials lab, he ran it through three different dating techniques. One said 200 BC, another said 50 AD, and the third came back as "maybe Roman, maybe medieval." He laughed it off but said the whole "we cracked Roman concrete" thing is mostly hype for grant money. The chemistry might be interesting but the real answer is probably just really good luck and local materials.