Jun 25
By: Robin Ngo
The 12th-century Crusaders left some historically valuable remains at a medieval castle in Paphos, Cyprus—specifically, in the castle’s toilets. Researchers from the University of Cambridge found human feces preserved in one of the latrines of a castle called Saranda Kolones, built by King Richard I of England in the western corner of the island during the Third Crusade in 1191 C.E. Saranda Kolones was in use for 30 years until it was destroyed by an earthquake, by which point Cyprus had been sold to Guy de Lusignan, the king of Jerusalem. The castle was never rebuilt and thus preserved the remnants found inside one of the ancient toilets.
Jun 18
What typically remain at archaeological sites are the ruins of once-magnificent cities. Visitors must rely on site plans and tour guides to imagine what stood before them long ago—temples, fortifications and other monuments of the cities of past civilizations. Now, with a new mobile app, visitors will be able to hold their smartphones up to a specific part of a site and see a 3D reconstruction of what was once there.
Jun 13
Standing the tests of time, Roman concrete is very resilient. One only has to look at structures like the Pantheon in Rome or the harbor at Caesarea Maritima in Israel to see that this is true, but is it as durable as modern concrete? According to findings by Paulo Monteiro and his team at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, it is.
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