Mortared Rubble Construction (aka
concrete) can be seen as one of the greatest technical achievements of ancient
Rome. The Roman concrete that was used back in early B.C did not consist of the
same material that current day concrete is made of. It was made of local
volcanic sand and pure high quality lime. Without this unique material, one
could argue that these massively beautiful structures that we’ve seen
throughout Italy, would not have existed.
Roman concrete was an economical
substitute for ashlar masonry because the concrete was much cheaper and less
dependent on highly skilled labor. The article that I read went into the small
details of what it took to build these concrete stone walls and how that
affected the economics of ancient Rome. These issues and topics were: the cost
differences between different types of concrete, the relative cost of ashlar
vs. concrete, and how the buildings were built and at what rate you could build
them.
Pompeii
Examples of where this concrete brick
was used are places like the ruins of Pompeii (especially the way the theater
was built) and Ostia’s large baths. It’s
interesting to see that the Roman concrete was such a prominent economic factor
back then. Because even in it’s fragile state today, these structures still
have a huge impact on the economy of Italy. Tourists from all over the world
come and pay to see these massive and outstanding structures to better
understand our world’s history. Because of the high tourist traffic, some
cities rely on tourists in order to stay afloat.
But, that’s not the only factor that
effects the economy of Italy when it comes to these structures. The upkeep of
maintaining the historical landmarks is also very taxing on the economy. When
we went through Naples, we saw that there wasn’t enough funding to continue the
restoration of the city that was below Naples. Who would have thought that
these concrete structures from early B.C would still be impacting the economy
of Italy in 2014? I know that this trip has opened my eyes to a lot of the
economic issues that Italy undergoes on a yearly basis. –Amy Wooten
Ostia
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