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arXiv · 1107.3831

Materials Science in Ancient Rome

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna
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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.

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Amelia Carolina Sparavigna. 2011-07-19. Materials Science in Ancient Rome. https://arxiv.org/abs/1107.3831

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