Roman Concrete Can Last 2,000 Years. Why Don't We Use It?

As of 26 Oct 2026. For educational purposes. Roman harbour concrete in the Bay of Pozzuoli has sat in seawater for about 2,000 years. So why don't we build with it? The basic recipe was never lost: Vitruvius wrote it down in the 1st century BC. The real reasons are steel, speed, ash and building codes. An educational explainer on the history and science of Roman concrete; every source is linked below. We visit the Bay of Naples, Caesarea and the Pantheon, and look at two studies published this month: a University of Naples study of which volcanic ash the Romans used (17 Oct 2026) and a lab study of Roman-inspired mortars mixed with seawater (14 Oct 2026). Disclosure: DMAT's claims are the company's own. Admir Masic and Paolo Sabatini (co-author of the 2023 study and DMAT's CEO) hold stakes in it, and it builds on technology licensed from MIT, so MIT's articles on DMAT are not independent. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 0:32 The dust from Puteoli 2:08 Caesarea, a harbour in open water 3:18 Inside the stone 5:22 The Pantheon, and the answer 8:08 The comeback 8:54 Verdict SOURCES Vitruvius, De Architectura II.6.1 and V.12.2–4 (Gwilt tr., LacusCurtius): https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/... · https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/... Pliny the Elder, Natural History 35.166 (Latin, LacusCurtius): https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/... Jackson et al. 2013, American Mineralogist (Baianus Sinus breakwater; Pliny translation): https://doi.org/10.2138/am.2013.4484 Mercurio et al. 2026, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-026-02... Lunardi et al. 2026, Construction and Building Materials (abstract): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat... ROMACONS, Caesarea 2005 season (Hohlfelder, Brandon, Oleson): https://web.uvic.ca/~jpoleson/ROMACON... Jackson et al. 2017, American Mineralogist (via University of Utah): https://unews.utah.edu/articles/roman... Jackson et al. 2014, PNAS: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1417456111 Seymour et al. 2023, Science Advances: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add1602 (MIT News: https://news.mit.edu/2023/roman-concr...) Vaserman et al. 2025, Nature Communications (via MIT News): https://news.mit.edu/2025/pompeii-off... Zhu et al. 2026, Science Advances: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeb0754 NCHRP Report 312 (TRB), concrete in compression and tension: https://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs... FHWA-RD-00-081: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications... STRUCTURE magazine 2022, "Alternative Cements" (ACI 318-19 §26.4.1.1.1): https://www.structuremag.org/article/... NRMCA CIP 35: https://www.nrmca.org/wp-content/uplo... Martinez, Miller & Monteiro 2025, iScience: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.1... Berkeley Lab 2013: https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2013/06/04... MIT CEE on DMAT (Aug 2026; not independent, see disclosure): https://cee.mit.edu/startup-brings-an... Italian Ministry of Culture, Pantheon: https://direzionemuseiroma.cultura.go... Our Short on the Pompeii building site frozen mid-job:    • The Building Site Pompeii Froze Mid-Job #s...   DISCLOSURE: The narration uses an AI-generated voice (synthetic speech, ElevenLabs). All animation is illustrative: the characters (including our mascot Pip), maps, harbour, Pantheon and lab scenes are drawings, not footage, and no real people are depicted; named researchers appear only as name cards. Quotes are short attributed extracts from the sources listed above. #RomanConcrete #History #Engineering