Posted on 02/13/2026 6:28:16 AM PST by SunkenCiv
For once, new research on the ruins of the Roman city of Pompeii is not focusing on the destructive aftermath of the infamous Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 CE. Instead, it centers on the creative acts preceding it. After taking a closer look at the city's construction projects, a team from MIT believes that ancient Rome's legendary concrete recipe might need a major historical revision.
When ancient Roman architecture comes to mind, the columns and coliseums are generally the first things that pop into your head. These structures were often built using Roman concrete -- and that material traces back to a single man named Vitruvius. The 1st century BCE engineer is widely credited for authoring De Archtectura, the only architectural treatise to survive from antiquity, and his recipe for concrete helped construct some of the empire's most iconic buildings.
In 2023, MIT engineer Admir Masic and colleagues published the results of their research into surviving Roman concrete. They confirmed that the composite was manufactured by first mixing lime fragments with volcanic ash and other dry materials. Adding water to this blend then produced heat at a chemical level in a process known as "hot-mixing." As the concrete set, it preserves bits of the reactive lime as tiny, gravel-like stones. When the concrete inevitably cracked over time, the lime then redissolves and fills in the fissures -- granting the material its famous self-healing properties.
(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...
I am. When I don’t see BC/AD in an article I am suspicious.
I am. When I don’t see BC/AD in an article I am suspicious.
I like the Roman recipe, but the result is pretty hard on the teeth.
You could also say CE stands for Christian Era. Thanks. Now I have a complete response.
“Who else is tired of revisionist history?”
It’s not revisionist it’s the internationally agreed upon date standard for scientists that is neutral to religion since most people on this planet are not one religion. This is a scientific journal and shocker they also use SI measurements too.
CE and BCE is in the same scientific system as meters and centigrade.
Or would you prefer to use the Chinese calender or the Hebrew one they both predate the Julian and Georgian calendars by at least 3000 years.
What you foolishly take as an affront is just what the whole global scientific community agreed on so we can use a common system nothing more.
“If English-speaking Christians can keep using “Thursday” (Thor’s Day), then non-Christians using the Gregorian calendar can use “B.C.” and “A.D.” without violating their consciences. Otherwise, they can try to get on with the Islamic calendar (1447 AH), Hebrew Calendar (AM 5786), Buddhist calendar (2569–2569 or 2564–2565 depending on location), Chinese calendar (4719, 4720, 2724, 4725, depending on . . . stuff), Ethiopian calendar (2018), Hindu Calendar (2083 VS), Aldous Huxley calendar (AF 118)”
This was exactly the problem.
So the global scientific community got together and agreed to use the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582 as a replacement for the flawed Julian calender before it as the common time epoch. In doing so since there are 8+ billion now and over 7 billion when it was decided with only a minority fraction of that total being judeo-christian religious references were not used. It is that simple anything else is emotional semantics and irrelevant to a scientist we simply don’t care, it’s what gets published in accepted scientific journal papers or it won’t pass the peer reviews.
CE and BCE are the Georgian calendars equivalent of the meter or the kilogram they are the time epoch standard, the length standard and the mass standards in the accepted SI system period full stop.
Fascinating!
BUMP for later...
Popular Science is not exactly a “Scientific Journal”. It is written for mass consumption. Scientific notation is used in scientific journals, but not nearly as often in news articles. It is a nuisance when Excel converts to it without being requested to.
We can do without the “full-stop” pedantry and the assignation of god-status to scientific journals and international bodies who take authority unto themselves. Outside of the “leap second” business, nothing was changed to the Gregorian Calendar except changing “AD” and “BCE”. There should be push back on these sorts of things.
How do we refer to the 33 or so years Christ was alive?
WA?
AD stands for Anno Domini, the year of our Lord. That's the year Jesus was born. There's no 33 year gap.
LOL!
And from that day to this, the Pantheon is the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world.
Well said.
😁 Libra (approximately 327.45 grams) was the Roman 'pound' (.721904 pounds). Thanks, never gave that much thought before.
Well said.
😊
My pleasure!
There is some sackcrete pre bagged in 50 lb bags but when we contractors are talking about a five and a half sack mix that refers to bags of cement which are generally about ninety-four pounds per bag.
Over fifty years involved anf I learned something new about reinforced concrete every year. It is an extraordinary material.
Steve Tyler Live at Roman Colosseum in Rome, Italy
Performing Dream On and Walk This Way
https://youtu.be/EnDbHi9-EA8?si=eLcJDQZFc55l5U0p
It is revisionist. The consensus agreement is based on the birth of a historic figure that “science” doesn’t want to acknowledge. You are not using a common system,,,the denial is silly posturing.
CE and BCE are not the same as centigrade and farenheit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.