Rome wasn't built in a day, but they sure had strong concrete

Short Wave

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🗓️ 6 March 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

The Roman Colosseum is a giant, oval amphitheater built almost two thousand years ago. Despite its age and a 14th century earthquake that knocked down the south side of the colosseum, most of the 150-some foot building is still standing. Like many ancient Roman structures, parts of it were constructed using a specific type of concrete. Scientists and engineers have long suspected a key to these buildings' durability is their use of this Roman concrete. But exactly how this sturdy concrete has contributed to the architecture's strength has been a mystery to researchers across the globe.

A team of interdisciplinary researchers have recently discovered one answer to why these ancient Roman buildings have weathered the test of time — while many modern, concrete structures seem to crumble after a few decades.

The answer: self-healing concrete.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:05.0	High short waivers, producer Berlim McCoy here sitting in his host.
0:09.0	So I recently took a trip to Italy and yes the food and the wine were great.
0:15.0	But what I really remember most is this ancient feeling from the art and the architecture.
0:21.0	It's hard to conceptualize how long this has been here.
0:27.0	Now my travel plans didn't originally include Rome but then I heard that Emily Quang was planning on doing an episode on Roman concrete
0:35.0	and how scientists had determined what made it so resilient and I was intrigued.
0:41.0	How did they get these blocks on top of each other?
0:44.0	I'm standing at the entrance just beyond the security gates of the Roman Colosseum.
0:49.0	The Colosseum is this giant oval amphitheater built almost 2,000 years ago and I was a little bit awestruck.
0:56.0	You can see pictures of this thing and it just doesn't do it justice.
1:03.0	Imagining how they did that. I mean this thing is huge. How did they get up there?
1:09.0	I spoke to people who came from all around the world to see the Colosseum.
1:13.0	It's so amazing.
1:14.0	Anshu was seeing the Colosseum for the first time with her husband Nourage who had visited once before from India.
1:20.0	They told me it was part of a goal they had to see the seven wonders of the world.
1:24.0	Meanwhile, Amani and Sora from Japan were amazed at the size and beauty.
1:30.0	The Japan where we are from, earthquakes and they wore the old buildings were like once broken.
1:37.0	And so it's kind of unbelievable that how the old building from the 2000 years ago is still like on site.
1:47.0	And even though the south side of this otherwise 150-some-foot building collapsed in a 14th century earthquake,
1:54.0	the majority of the building is still standing.
1:58.0	So today on the show, Emily Cuong digs into the science of ancient Roman cement,
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