Why was Roman Concrete Forgotten during the Middle Ages?

YouTube ^ | November 12, 2021 | toldinstone channel

[SunkenCiv]

For centuries, concrete was everywhere in Roman Italy: in the awesomely durable breakwaters of artificial harbors, in the soaring vaults of great baths, in the foundations of the Colosseum, and - of course - in the spectacular dome of the Pantheon. But during late antiquity, concrete all but vanished from the Mediterranean world, and would not be used widely again until the twentieth century. This video explains why.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:39 Understanding Roman concrete
1:29 Early experiments
2:25 The apogee
3:33 Squarespace!
4:19 Geographic limits of Roman concrete
5:00 The decline of concrete
6:28 Final notices
7:26 Not forgotten, but gone

Why was Roman Concrete Forgotten during the Middle Ages? | November 12, 2021 | toldinstone

[SunkenCiv]

• The Surprisingly Plausible Theory that the Pyramids were Poured from Ancient Concrete [10/03/2021]

[SunkenCiv]

There's a brief sponsor message a few minutes into the vid. And I agree, he has no tech saavy, I have to change from maxres to hq by hand in my YT template, each time I post one of his.

[thesearethetimes...]

following

[rdl6989]

Bookmark

[PIF]

Why was Roman Concrete Forgotten during the Middle Ages?

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For most of the same reason that most of what preceded it was forgotten and had to be re-invented like optical lens and large ship construction. Muslims.

[bunkerhill7]

Concrete became abstract during the Middle Ages.

[JeanLM]

Think it was different material; zeolite based. They ran out of it in ancient times. Can be made today but costs 7x. regular concrete.

Breakwaters at Herculeom and the original Pantheon used it and it’s still good.

[thesearethetimes...]

Interesting - hubby agrees - says it could set underwater?

[PghBaldy]

Islam didn’t start for a coule if hindred years or so after Rome fell.

[DesertRhino]

Costs 7x as much, but lasts 2000 years. Actually that is less expensive!

[waterhill]

Some guy named Brandon said it was unsustainable and they believed him....

[thesearethetimes...]

I like the way you think, FRiend.

[Tucker39]

I never knew they had concrete back that far. If you search concrete and Thomas Edison you’ll find he is credited with introducing Portland Cement to the U.S.A. in the late 1800s. It’s all over the place, including a mention of it at his winter home in Ft. Myers, FL.

[fhayek]

Okay. I see what you did there...

[pierrem15]

No monumental building after the beginning of the 4th Century. Even Hagia Sophis was built of brick, although the harbor built by Justinian may have used Roman concrete because it set in water.

In Britain, knowledge of building in stone completely disappeared. French stonemasons had to be imported to build the first stone Anglo-Saxon churches.

Roman concrete is really remarkable because it achieves a tensile strength equal to reinforced modern concrete without the Achilles heel of rusting rebar. It's also self-healing, meaning cracks exposed to water generate new crystals that seal the crack and re-bind the two halves.

It is very labor intensive, because it's too thick to pour. It's a thick paste that has to be rammed into the form.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Concrete became abstract during the Middle Ages.

I give up.

You won the thread.

[CodeToad]

Liberalism?

[taterjay]

They probably had a lockdown pandemic that made most of the population stupid in less than a year.

[Tallguy]

LOL! Good one!

[WMarshal]

Concrete was constantly micro-aggressing the other more primitive building materials so they genocided it.