The earliest surviving hydraulic concrete is found in the harbor pile at Cosa, dated between the late 2nd century and the mid 1st century B.C.[1] Cosa is the earliest known port the romans had and some of the structures built still stand today.
Roman aqueduct were made out concrete and helped support the expansion of the Roman Empire as well as an architectural achievement. Parts of the Colosseum were made with concrete.[2]
Structures built with the ancient Roman recipe still stand today and retain their structural integrity. They have stood for 2,000 years and in all that time they’ve only grown stronger. The only problem is, the Romans’ exact recipe was lost long ago.[3] Until 2017 when a American Mineralogist found out more to the mixture. Elements within the volcanic material reacted with sea water to strengthen the concrete structure and prevent cracks from growing over time.[4] Scientists previously discovered Roman concrete contained aluminous tobermorite, a rare mineral that is hard to produce, as well as phillipsite. When the concrete would have cracks and sea water would enter the cracks those two minerals would crystalize and actually strengthen the concrete over time. [5]
- ^ "The development of hydraulic concrete by the Romans for coastal". studylib.net. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
- ^ "The-Colosseum.net:Materials". www.the-colosseum.net. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
- ^ "In search of the lost art of ancient Roman concrete". Aleteia — Catholic Spirituality, Lifestyle, World News, and Culture. 2017-07-14. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
- ^ "How Ancient Roman concrete still stands while modern version erodes". www.abc.net.au. 2017-07-05. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
- ^ "Scientist believes she's found the recipe for ancient Roman concrete used 2,000 years ago". Aleteia — Catholic Spirituality, Lifestyle, World News, and Culture. 2019-07-16. Retrieved 2020-12-11.