Talking about historical monuments and structures, I'm still amazed at how this temple[1] has been constructed without all the tech that we have now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brihadisvara_Temple,_Thanjavur
How are Rome's monuments still standing?
141–150 of 218 posts
Re: How are Rome's monuments still standing?
#142Re: How are Rome's monuments still standing?
#143Tangentially related to this, one of my hobbies is to explore old long abandoned ghost towns and mining camps in the Southwest US. It is really impressive how well many of these structures have held up in harsh climates. One of my favorite parts is seeing how repairs were improvised in the wilderness using whatever supplies happened to be available. The standard approach to trash back then was to throw it in a pile n…
Isn't the Southwest uniquely not harsh? The biggest enemy of most man-made structures is water.
Same thought. Where I grew up...if water didn't kill it, tornados would. The only barns that stood the test of time were made from the now nearly extinct chestnut. They turn grey and get knotty and twisty as they age but are nearly indestructible. Everything else rots away in the humidity.
One rather interesting memory...I remember my father rebuilding an old barnish structure with railroad ties for the frame. Apparently they soak those suckers in tar...out in the sun each day they'd start sweating some black tar stuff again that's nearly impossible to get off your hands. Those haven't aged a day in 20ish years. Makes me curious why more structural wood isn't treated this way.
Re: How are Rome's monuments still standing?
#144Does make me wonder what we’re building today that will last. I suppose the engineers who worked on Voyager or Pathfinder have the best shot of having built something enduring.
Assuming it never crashes into a planet/a star/an alien spaceship, it is probably going to outlast the human race.
Re: How are Rome's monuments still standing?
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't the Southwest uniquely not harsh? The biggest enemy of most man-made structures is water.
Same thought. Where I grew up...if water didn't kill it, tornados would. The only barns that stood the test of time were made from the now nearly extinct chestnut. They turn grey and get knotty and twisty as they age but are nearly indestructible. Everything else rots away in the humidity. One rather interesting memory...I remember my father rebuilding an old barnish structure with railroad ties for the frame. Appare…
Mostly because it is quite polluting if it gets into the groundwater or in your well.
Re: How are Rome's monuments still standing?
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't the Southwest uniquely not harsh? The biggest enemy of most man-made structures is water.
Same thought. Where I grew up...if water didn't kill it, tornados would. The only barns that stood the test of time were made from the now nearly extinct chestnut. They turn grey and get knotty and twisty as they age but are nearly indestructible. Everything else rots away in the humidity. One rather interesting memory...I remember my father rebuilding an old barnish structure with railroad ties for the frame. Appare…
I think this is one of the saddest aspects of the progression of our current expression of Civilization as we forge through time:
The lost knowledge and, even more importantly, the fundamental resource depletion/extinction caused by our activities which result in both the knowledge of *how* to do/accomplish/build/mend/heal, as well as the actual natural resources required to execute that knowledge in a meaningful or impactful way on your life...
--- However the Chestnut appears to be largely wiped out by two separate blights
https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2019/04/29/what-it-takes-bri...
Re: How are Rome's monuments still standing?
#147I wonder if there will come a time when society decides it's better to fix ruins such as the Colosseum and the pyramids instead of letting them just rot away.
With the Colosseum at least, it didn't just sit there untouched for two thousand years. The locals have repaired it after disasters. And also partially torn it down. And then rebuilt it. About 150 years after it was built, it was partially destroyed by fire. And rebuilt. Another 200 years later there are inscriptions from late emperors who did more repair work. In the medieval era it was stripped of marble and suffer…
It blows my mind that the Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest building in the world for 4,440 years (give or take 10), until the Eiffel Tower finally dethroned it.
Re: How are Rome's monuments still standing?
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rome wasn’t written in a day.
In fact it was, but on the second day, it would no longer compile. After a long debugging session, Romulus realized Remus had unpublished the hWall (or aMoenia) function in the night. Romulus then murdered his brother.
Romulus remus asyncronus
Re: How are Rome's monuments still standing?
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Similarly, I have a hobby of restoring vintage and antique tools. Same observation regarding how disposable many modern items are.
As someone that does swing dancing and with quite a lot of people into vintage stuff there has been this talk of "survivor" bias whenever we talk about how stuff was made better back then. Naturally the cheap stuff didn't tend to even remotely make it this far. Curious what your opinion is as I haven't heard much about tools etc.
Just a thought:
There are a couple factors that would result in a longer lasting tool of Yore...
There were no plastics and other ephemeral materials, and so tool handles were wood, leather or metal.
There was no 'mass production at global scale' - effectively every tool was hand made, or made by machines that were made by hand to make the tools -- and all of which were done without aid of computational mathematical prowess-by-proxy...
So, smaller batches of potentially longer lasting product because everything was continually being crafted by hand and observed by human eye...
Re: How are Rome's monuments still standing?
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same thought. Where I grew up...if water didn't kill it, tornados would. The only barns that stood the test of time were made from the now nearly extinct chestnut. They turn grey and get knotty and twisty as they age but are nearly indestructible. Everything else rots away in the humidity. One rather interesting memory...I remember my father rebuilding an old barnish structure with railroad ties for the frame. Appare…
I think this is one of the saddest aspects of the progression of our current expression of Civilization as we forge through time: The lost knowledge and, even more importantly, the fundamental resource depletion/extinction caused by our activities which result in both the knowledge of *how* to do/accomplish/build/mend/heal, as well as the actual natural resources required to execute that knowledge in a meaningful or…
Correct. They've had some success crossbreeding them with a Chinese variant, but the jury is seemingly still out if they'll actually repopulate and how good the wood will be. The wood from American Chestnuts is legendary, and I can personally attest to that. So much so that old barnwood can be sold for good money. Shame nothing else has replaced it properly.