Why the concrete technology in ancient Rome was lost?

The first layer is that this technology was forgotten by the world for hundreds of years after the fall of the Roman Empire; On the other hand, we already know the concrete technology in ancient Rome today, but for various reasons, we don't intend to use this technology without modification.

6000 years ago, human beings first took root in the two river basins, and then developed into four ancient civilizations. As we know, ancient China is the representative of eastern civilization, while the two bright pearls in the west are Greek and Roman civilizations. The differences between eastern and western civilizations are not only reflected in culture and politics, but also in their respective architectural styles.

Rome gives people a sense of sacred and solemn ceremony, which is attributed to the rich cultural background of Rome. There are the Roman Empire two thousand years ago and the Renaissance in medieval Rome. It can be said that Rome is a living fossil of European and even human civilization!

Our understanding of Rome begins with Roman architecture. Typical western-style buildings are solemn and impressive.

Scientists raised questions by studying the seawalls in ancient Rome 2000 years ago. According to the truth, the city walls that have been immersed in seawater all the year round should have decayed and become history, but this is not the case. The concrete technology used in modern civilization has added composite cement, but the houses built are less than a hundred years old. We can't help asking, did the ancient Romans before 2000 have more advanced architectural technology than now?

Through research, scientists found that houses built with modern cement are particularly vulnerable to erosion. However, those magnificent buildings of the medieval Renaissance can stand for thousands of years as new as ever.

Scientists found that the ancient Romans added a unique material to their buildings, that is, active volcanic ash. The site of ancient Roman civilization is a place surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the sea on one side. Both sides of the site are dormant volcanoes. These two volcanoes went into a dormant state as early as 400,000 years ago, but they left a lot of fine particles with a diameter less than two microns around the crater, which we call active volcanic ash for short. In fact, volcanic ash has many uses, usually used to make cosmetics or as farmland fertilizer.

However, when a certain proportion of volcanic ash is added to the concrete of the building, the durability of the building will be greatly enhanced. Scientists believe that the ancient Roman architecture can stand for thousands of years because the local volcanic ash was added to the concrete. As for the proportion of volcanic ash formula, scientists can only roughly predict it, but they can't know it accurately!