05-21-2007, 09:33 PM
Ancient Concrete Nearly Perfect
By Ranger
Drexel University researchers are revising the book on the Pyramids of Egypt, the last surviving wonder of the ancient world. The standard hypothesis for their construction speculates that ancient Egyptians carved the blocks out of nearby deposits of natural limestone, using stone age tools, and then floated the stones on barges, and used primitive ramps and levers to wrestle the blocks into place. The fact is, no one knows even to this day how the Pyramids were built. Many of the limestone blocks fit so perfectly that not even a human hair can fit between them. In interior hallways, seventy ton granite blocks are placed and polished with optical precision. Why have no copper chisels ever been found by archaeologists on the Giza plain? How has the foundation withstood the enormous weight of the structure over the ages?
The technologies employed continue to defy modern explanation. However, announcements from a team of materials Scientists from Drexel University, working with electron microscopes, verify that at least some of the blocks are cast of a unique form of concrete. Professor Michel Barsoum and colleagues have found scientific evidence that parts of the Great Pyramids of Giza were built using an early form of concrete. It has long been known that ancient Rome used concrete extensively for public works, from the Coliseum to the aqueducts. This discovery that a form of concrete was used by the Egyptians is a major new discovery, and will re-write the history books. This discovery is not expected to end the speculation that extraterrestials somehow were involved.
This line of inquiry is not new. As reported by the website livescience.com, Joseph Davidovits, former Director of the Geopolymer Institute in St. Quentin, France, more than twenty years previous to today, began to make this case. Davidovits boldly stated that the stones of the pyramids were actually made of a mixture of limestone, clay, lime, and water. Michael Carrell, a retired colleague, challenged Michel Barosum to prove the theory by using electron microscopy. Such a task required one and a half years of spare research time, partially funded by the National Science Foundation. When studying the photomicrographs, they found that the tiniest structureswithin the inner and outer casing stones were indeed consistent with a ground up limestone. The "glue" or cement binding this limestone recipe was either silicon dioxide (the building block of quartz) or a calcium and magnesium-rich silicate mineral.
Other more subtle molecular clues pointed to concrete and not limestone too. Limestone is a sedimentary rock formed by eons of pressure, over the eons, the molecules line up. However, in cement, the molecules are amorphous, their atoms are not arranged in a regular and periodic array. Another finding consistent with the cement hypothesis is that the pyramid stones had too high a water content to be limestone quarried from a nearby desert location.
Researchers now have a new respect for the materials science of the Ancient Egyptians. According to Barsoum, the ancient technology points the way for builders today to make a cheaper, environmentally friendly, long lasting cement. The Pharaohs poured a cultured limestone so perfect that archaeologists and historians have been fooled for generations.
Sources:
http://www.materials.drexel.edu/Pyramids/
http://www.%20livescience.com
http://pyramids.blog.com
www. livescience.com
More resources
http://www.materials.drexel.edu/Pyramids/
By Ranger
Drexel University researchers are revising the book on the Pyramids of Egypt, the last surviving wonder of the ancient world. The standard hypothesis for their construction speculates that ancient Egyptians carved the blocks out of nearby deposits of natural limestone, using stone age tools, and then floated the stones on barges, and used primitive ramps and levers to wrestle the blocks into place. The fact is, no one knows even to this day how the Pyramids were built. Many of the limestone blocks fit so perfectly that not even a human hair can fit between them. In interior hallways, seventy ton granite blocks are placed and polished with optical precision. Why have no copper chisels ever been found by archaeologists on the Giza plain? How has the foundation withstood the enormous weight of the structure over the ages?
The technologies employed continue to defy modern explanation. However, announcements from a team of materials Scientists from Drexel University, working with electron microscopes, verify that at least some of the blocks are cast of a unique form of concrete. Professor Michel Barsoum and colleagues have found scientific evidence that parts of the Great Pyramids of Giza were built using an early form of concrete. It has long been known that ancient Rome used concrete extensively for public works, from the Coliseum to the aqueducts. This discovery that a form of concrete was used by the Egyptians is a major new discovery, and will re-write the history books. This discovery is not expected to end the speculation that extraterrestials somehow were involved.
This line of inquiry is not new. As reported by the website livescience.com, Joseph Davidovits, former Director of the Geopolymer Institute in St. Quentin, France, more than twenty years previous to today, began to make this case. Davidovits boldly stated that the stones of the pyramids were actually made of a mixture of limestone, clay, lime, and water. Michael Carrell, a retired colleague, challenged Michel Barosum to prove the theory by using electron microscopy. Such a task required one and a half years of spare research time, partially funded by the National Science Foundation. When studying the photomicrographs, they found that the tiniest structureswithin the inner and outer casing stones were indeed consistent with a ground up limestone. The "glue" or cement binding this limestone recipe was either silicon dioxide (the building block of quartz) or a calcium and magnesium-rich silicate mineral.
Other more subtle molecular clues pointed to concrete and not limestone too. Limestone is a sedimentary rock formed by eons of pressure, over the eons, the molecules line up. However, in cement, the molecules are amorphous, their atoms are not arranged in a regular and periodic array. Another finding consistent with the cement hypothesis is that the pyramid stones had too high a water content to be limestone quarried from a nearby desert location.
Researchers now have a new respect for the materials science of the Ancient Egyptians. According to Barsoum, the ancient technology points the way for builders today to make a cheaper, environmentally friendly, long lasting cement. The Pharaohs poured a cultured limestone so perfect that archaeologists and historians have been fooled for generations.
Sources:
http://www.materials.drexel.edu/Pyramids/
http://www.%20livescience.com
http://pyramids.blog.com
www. livescience.com
More resources
http://www.materials.drexel.edu/Pyramids/