Materials Science in Ancient Rome
ARCHAEOGATE, July 23, 2011
7 Pages Posted: 15 Mar 2016 Last revised: 30 Mar 2016
Date Written: July 23, 2011
Abstract
Two books, the "De Architectura" by Vitruvius and the "Naturalis Historia" by Pliny the Elder, give us a portrait of the Materials Science, that is, the knowledge of materials, in Rome at the beginning of the Empire. Here, I am reporting some very attractive contents that we can find in these books. The reader will see the discussion proposed in fours case studies: concretes, coatings, amorphous materials and colloidal crystals, to describe them in modern words.
Keywords: concretes, glass, ancient Rome, opals, archaeology, materials science, amalgams
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