6 Jan 2023 · Rome, Italy
Roman concrete’s self-healing secret
MIT-led work showed lime clasts from hot mixing with quicklime let Roman concrete self-heal cracks.
Why it matters: It is a “lost” technology that modern engineers want to copy.
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20 Jul 2026 · Dahshur, Egypt
Two possible Old Kingdom dams found near the Red Pyramid
Xavier Landreau, Guillaume Piton and Sayed Hemeda used satellite imagery, 19th-century maps and watershed mapping. They argue that two 600–700 m structures across Wadi Dahshur, west of the Red Pyramid, long read as stone-transport ramps, are dams, one with a duckbill-shaped spillway, linked to a roughly 1 km diversion channel passing close to the pyramid.
ancient technologypyramidsremote sensing
Site guide: Giza & Saqqara · Source: Landreau, Piton & Hemeda 2026, npj Heritage Science ↗
18 Jun 2026 · Sacsayhuamán, Cusco, Peru
Puzzle of Sacsayhuamán’s scattered stones: Cruz Moqo reconstructed
Researchers analysed 138 dispersed blocks from a dismantled sector, using geometric silhouettes and computational matching, to propose how the early Inca walls fitted together.
Site guide: Sacsayhuamán & Cusco · Brien Foerster · Source: npj Heritage Science 2026 ↗
21 May 2026 · Great Pyramid, Giza, Egypt
Why the Great Pyramid survives earthquakes
An ambient-noise survey at 37 points inside and around Khufu’s pyramid found uniform resonance frequencies and design features that reduce seismic amplification.
Site guide: Giza & Saqqara · Source: Scientific Reports 2026 ↗
9 Jan 2026 · Brazilian coast, Brazil
World’s oldest whale harpoons found in Brazil
Science reported bone harpoons used by ancient coastal foragers in Brazil as the oldest known whaling tools.
Source: Science news, Jan 2026 ↗