I will never forget the disbelief I felt when my undergraduate art history professor mentioned that civilization had lost the recipe for concrete. This seemed preposterous. I've walked on a sidewalk before, skipped down the paved path as a child, watching diligently to not step on cracks for fear of “breaking my mother’s back”, as the old saying warned. We have concrete!
What she went on to explain was that the original recipe for the highly durable Roman concrete had been lost to history. For thousands of years, people have tried to reverse engineer this seemingly simple technology. It has been quite a challenge. Though we have concrete now, it is not the same as the concrete used by the Romans. The concrete we use in modernity is actually pretty poor in comparison to the Roman concrete of the past. Think about it for a moment. Roman concrete roads, aqueducts, and structure are still doing well considering there antiquity. Consider all the times you've driven down a road of potholes or walked down a sidewalk with pits and cracks and questioned, “Didn't they just pave this a few years ago?”
While some of this may be seen as planned obsolesce, it is still testament to the relative inefficiency of modern concrete, most of which lasts only decades. Commonly, what is used is Portland cement. We have been using this recipe for over 200 years, not a bad recipe, but compared with the durability of Roman concrete, it falls flat, especially when exposed to salt water.
After years of research, scientists in the US and Europe have finally figured out the recipe to Roman concrete. The findings are published in this month's issues of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society and American Mineralogist, a publication to which I’m sure you all subscribe. ;)
According to the scientists, "The Romans made concrete by mixing lime and volcanic rock. For underwater structures, lime and volcanic ash were mixed to form mortar, and this mortar and volcanic tuff were packed into wooden forms. The seawater instantly triggered a hot chemical reaction. The lime was hydrated – incorporating water molecules into its structure – and reacted with the ash to cement the whole mixture together." It is because of this lime and volcanic ash mixture that Roman concrete has such tremendous binding ability.
It gets better, though. Not only is this concrete far superior in durability, but unlike modern concrete, it is more environmentally sustainable. The manufacturing of most modern concrete accounts for 7% of greenhouse gas emissions. With these new, ancient methods, we have the potential to make amazingly durable structures and live in harmony with the environment.
I wonder what other lost technology we may find and for use in modernity? It is my belief that ancient civilizations possessed a number of technologies that we may never fully understand. Since they used the natural resources around them, a lot of evidence of such “green” technologies may have simply decayed or been lost to history, though some have not.
Between the pyramids, Baghdad Battery, and the Antikythera mechanism, just to name a few, there is little doubt that the ancients were far more advanced than they are commonly depicted.
Yes. You read that correctly.
Weird, but true, local authorities have granted a Canadian film company permission to excavate a New Mexico landfill in search of a unique artifact.
The mysterious relic they are seeking?
The Atari video game of E.T., inspired by the 1982 Steven Spielberg film. Though the film was a blockbuster success, the video game was a flop and considered to be one of the worst video games of all time.
But why would E.T. be in New Mexico? (Insert Roswell E.T. joke here.)
Buried deep in a New Mexico desert, there is rumored to be an Atari graveyard. Here, it is believed that numerous truckloads of games were dumped in September of 1983. The film company is planning to document their exploration.
When authorities were asked, Alamogordo, New Mexico's District 1 Commissioner Jason Baldwin admitted to having played the E.T. Atari game and confirmed that, it "indeed, was horrible".
An unbelievable discovery at the Gonur-Tepe site points to earlier advances in human civilization than had previously been believed. Researchers consider it to be home of the 5th oldest civilization, a civilization lost but clearly quite advanced. Once inhabited by Indo-Iranian people, Gonur-Tepe dates back to 2500 BCE.
New discoveries at the site are forcing archaeologist to reconsider the technology of mosaic making. A well-preserved mosaic found at the site pre-dates the classical Greek and Roman mosaics known today.
Gonur-Tepe is home to a grand palace, fortified walls, and temples with Zoroastrian fire altars. Advanced molded metal, silver and gold trinkets, and glazed pottery are among some of the artifacts being uncovered. In addition to containers with traces of various mind altering plant residue, there is also evidence of tools for making and using soma for rituals, as mentioned in the Rigveda and haoma as in the Avesta.
The city is a massive walled complex. From an aerial view it resembles a maze and is about 30 miles from the ancient city of Merv outside the modern city of Mary. Merv dates back to the time of the Achaemenid Persians and reached its peak under Turkic rule in the 12th century CE. Merv was eventually sacked by the Mongols in 1221 which killed tens of thousands of people, leading others to abandon the ruins.
Gonur-Tepe contains at least 354 archaeological monuments, the majority of which have only recently been studied due to its isolated location in Turkmenistan. Unfortunately, archaeologists are in a quandary about what to do with the artifacts since they need such careful restoration and conservation.
While it is encouraging to see such cooperation in archaeology recently, more cooperation is needed. We must ensure that these discoveries are not only shared with the general public, but also preserved in their home countries. Cultural heritage is vitally important. It gives humans a sense of unity and belonging and can give us insight into our shared human origins.
Let's hope they continue working in unity to find a solution.
This is a special type of sundial called a 'polyhedral dial' because it is made in a complicated shape. It can be used to tell the time in a number of different ways from the position of the sun. It is a very precious object and is completely covered in gold. Made for Cardinal Wolsey (bearing his arms, the arms of York Minster and two representations of a cardinal’s hat), by Nicholaus Kratzer, this was a typical conjunction of astronomical and cosmographical interests. Born in Munich and educated at the universities of Cologne and Wittenberg, Kratzer was an instrument-maker, who brought the craft practice of astronomy to England in about 1517, arriving, according to a contemporary account, bearing astrolabes and armillary spheres.
In the Renaissance, 'polyhedral' dials like this one were less useful as things to be used everyday and more like things that had all the up-to-date technology and theories built into them. They were made so that mathematicians and instrument makers could show off their skills and demonstrate that they had mastered all the new mathematical theories and techniques in something that actually worked.
Like all sundials, this one works by casting the shadow of a spike called a 'gnomon' onto a series of lines that have been calibrated to show the time. In a polyhedral dial the challenge was to build as many different individual sundials onto as many different faces as possible. This sundial has nine different faces, which is good going. If it is made correctly then all the dials on all the different faces should show exactly the same time no matter what direction the sundial is pointing in.
