Ah, the early parts of the writing process where you’re figuring out Just How Clever You Must Be. My favorite.

At least I’ve settled on a protagonist name.

She has been christened Vivian Schmerl. Hooray!

New story writing has begun.

We are opening with our protagonist- not hero, very important -so deeply hung over she’s grinding her back against an old nail in the wall to ground herself in reality.

This is how a yuri Frankenstein ought to start, in my humble onion: At one rock bottom, from whence she will wander some very circuitous cave systems to end up several stories underneath a different rock bottom.

I’m watching Unearthed (2007)

Unearthed, vol. 20 :: New Year’s Eve (1970s)

We’re back with a seasonally appropriate Unearthed mix of dusty live tapes, this one made up entirely of recordings from various New Years Eves throughout the 1970s. As with any good NYE party, it’s equal parts groovy, boozy and chaotic. Hit play at 10:30pm on December 31 and you can time it just right to hear JJ Cale welcome you to 1976.

Parliament/Funkadelic, “Maggot Brain” (Detroit 1977) ++ The Grateful Dead, “China Cat Sunflower / I Know You Rider” (San Francisco 1971) ++ DEVO, “Gotta Serve Somebody” (Long Beach 1979) ++ John Cale, “Casey at the Bat” (NYC 1977) ++ The Modern Lovers, “She Cracked” (NYC 1973) ++ Television, “Adventure” (NYC 1976) ++ Patti Smith, “Redondo Beach” (NYC 1976) ++ The Allman Brothers, “Mountain Jam” (New Orleans 1970) ++ Lou Reed, “Sister Ray” (Bryn Mawr 1972) ++ JJ Cale, “After Midnight” (Tulsa 1975)

A Pompeii Site Reveals The Recipe For Roman Concrete. It Contradicts A Famous Architect’s Writings

— By Taylor Nicioli | December 19, 2025

The Arch of Caligula at the archaeological site of Pompeii, the ancient Roman city destroyed by Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in AD 79.

Along with its many other innovations, the Roman Empire revolutionized architecture with never-before-seen features, such as large-scale arches and dome roofs. And many of these structures still stand today despite being more than 2,000 years old.

None of it would have been possible without the Romans’ infallible building material: self-healing concrete. Now, an ancient construction site has revealed the recipe for creating this sturdy foundation.

At the time Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, covering Pompeii in as much as 6 meters (19.7 feet) of volcanic ash, construction workers were in the process of repairing and renovating a house. International researchers excavated the site in 2023, revealing some completed walls and others that were half-built, as well as raw materials and tools.

“When I entered this archaeological site in Pompeii, everything was so vivid and also kind of perfectly preserved, to be able to just reconstruct clearly what was going on there,” said Admir Masic, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lead author of a new study documenting the discovery. “They’re frozen in time. It’s literally a time capsule.”

The findings, which were published December 9 in the journal Nature Communications, are the clearest evidence of mixing processes that the ancient Romans used to create concrete, according to a release from MIT — and they allow researchers to “make conclusions that we were not able to make, or at least not with this certainty about the Roman technology,” Masic told CNN.

Uncovering An Active Construction Site

About one-third of Pompeii remains to be excavated, enabling scientists to continue making new discoveries about the ancient Roman way of life. The active construction site described in the new study was first investigated in the late 1880s, but excavations were halted and did not begin again until 2023. It was then that Masic’s team realized the magnitude of its discovery.

“This is typical for Pompeii. Archaeologists are just slowly but surely, you know, uncovering parts,” Masic said. “I think there is this kind of standard, very cautious way of excavating, because once excavated, you actually break that time capsule and things start to degrade. … You basically remove that protection that ensures that everything is perfectly preserved.”

The eerie remains of Pompeii seem untouched. But new findings reveal a little-known postscript

After excavations, the study authors performed analysis on evidence found at the site, including piles of mixed dry materials that builders had been using to create the concrete, a wall that was in the process of being built and other structural walls that were already completed.

But this discovery was not the first that Masic made on the recipe for Roman concrete. A paper he authored in 2023 had analyzed samples from a 2,000-year-old city wall in the archaeological site of Privernum in central Italy. In that article, he identified lime clasts in the wall — small, white mineral chunks that give the concrete a self-healing ability. When cracks formed, water or rainfall could be added, which would dissolve the lime, allowing the mineral to fill and seal the fractures as it dried and recrystallized.

Differing Recipes

Masic and his team determined that these minerals were added through a process known as “hot-mixing” in which the lime fragments were combined with dry ingredients such as volcanic ash. Water was then added, creating a chemical reaction that produced heat and trapped the lime clasts in the concrete.

However, Masic’s team was initially unsure if the city wall was representative of all Roman architecture, as the concrete recipe differed from one described in the first century manuscript “De architectura” by the famed ancient Roman architect Vitruvius.

Vitruvius described water being added to the lime before any other materials instead of the hot-mixing method. The newly excavated construction site, however, shows that the materials were mixed when they were dry, which confirmed that Romans had used the hot-mixing process instead of Vitruvius’ method, according to the study.

“It’s really difficult to think that Vitruvius was wrong. And I respect Vitruvius, and he inspired literally all my work,” Masic said. He added that it is possible that Vitruvius’ method was used elsewhere throughout the Roman Empire, or that scholars have misinterpreted his writings or not fully examined them.

John Senseney, an associate professor of ancient history at the University of Arizona in Tucson, said he does not find it surprising that Vitruvius’ methods are not representative of the process used in the construction site.

“Expecting scientific discoveries to conform to what Vitruvius writes would be misguided. Vitruvius’s corpus was indeed authoritative for humanist architects during the Renaissance over a thousand years later, but you’d be hard pressed to find much in Roman imperial era buildings that followed that reflect his prescriptions. If Roman builders had any detailed awareness of what he wrote, they invariably discarded it,” Senseney said in an email. He was not involved with the new study.

“Discoveries like this throw light on the incredible contributions of common workers and even enslaved persons in ancient history, which is very difficult to appreciate directly in the written works of elite authors,” Senseney added. He pointed to ancient buildings such as the Pantheon and Colosseum that reflect the “expertise and innovation” of these everyday people who were masters at their craft.

“Studies like this allow us to see them and the wonders they gave to their world, and to us in return. When we recognize that, we’re better able to appreciate the stunning achievements that everyday people make possible in our own world,” Senseney said.

The eerie remains of Pompeii seem untouched. But new findings reveal a little-known postscript

Masic said he hopes the discovery will inspire other scholars to look further into Vitruvius’ work in relation to the Roman architecture that stands today. He also wants to examine how the ancient processes could translate into and possibly improve modern practices.

“I will never forget being able to just open a time capsule and travel in time and feel like I am in 79 AD looking at people making their concrete,” he said.

“That’s what really fascinates me in dissecting these, particularly when it comes to ancient Roman concrete and infrastructure Romans built that is still standing here after 2,000 years — I’m not sure how much of our things will be there in 2,000 years from now.”

— Taylor Nicioli is a Freelance Journalist Based in New York.

You inch back into the shadows hoping he doesn’t notice you, he looks deranged. But he sees you, he sees everything.

Photo by Nicolas Guerin

music rant: wdym you don’t listen to local music?

so. i am from (so called) australia, right? i would say we have a thriving music scene here, especially where i live. i admit, i only really got into aussie music a year ago after moving into a place where my housemate worked in radio. their love for local music is infectious, what can i say?

but since then, it has been like my entire world has burst into colour because it is actually SUPER easy to find music that you love that is made right here!!

the ABC (australian broadcasting corporation - basically our government branch of media) has triple j radio and triple j has this thing called ‘unearthed’ (https://www.abc.net.au/triplejunearthed/) which is like this database where artists can upload their songs for people to find, it has its own radio and promotes a bunch of songs.

it is flipping awesome!! i know there are some critiques on it but that is not what this is about. in terms of a starting point for getting into local music, you really can’t beat this. it tells you what genre, where from, who the artist is. like, come on.

which is why i will never believe anyone who says they can’t find any music they like that is made from an australian artist. diva. you’re joking, right?

i would love to know if there is something like this anywhere else in the world. i like finding smallish international artists as well but it is less likely that i will have the chance to see them live (*sighs* olive klug and florence road pls come here - i love you) unless you see them at a niche festival or they just happen to come here (expensive and unlikely). you only really get to see big acts here from mega artists where the concerts are massive, expensive and overstimulating. most only hit the main cities (sometimes only Syd or Melb - which essentially neglects about three quarters of the country) and that sucks because for those who don’t live near one, you either spend a lot of money to see this artist or just hope seeing the snippets on social media will scratch the itch left over from not getting to see them. it does not hit the same as being shuffled into a cramped bar on a random thursday night where you only came because your friend was going and you had nothing to do and its free so you go and now you’re watching as some really drunk woman nearly steps on musical equipment that must cost hundreds of dollars but holy shit is this band good!!

i just love perusing unearthed. i have found some of my favourite artists through it. besides, when i listen local it means that i get more of a chance to go to live gigs and support artists more directly. growing up in a (pretty big) regional town meant hiking it to the nearest capital city if i wanted to see any big international acts which cost a lot of money. i know, now, that there was/is a great music scene from my hometown, but unless you were into music (which as a teen, i was not), you did not really know about it.

listen local is all i am saying. most gigs don’t cost over $20 and some are even free. if you have been telling yourself that you want to support more artists, physical media, live music - then get started. it is really not that hard. andddd the money you spend actually goes to the artist/band and not a streaming service.

I want to break you open

Slot has just unearthed Liverpool’s new Gerrard and it’s not Szoboszlai

Liverpool have opened the 2024/25 season in perfect fashion, sitting top of the Premier League with four wins from four.

Under Arne Slot, they’ve quickly shown resilience and attacking flair, but the journey has not been without its flaws.
Three times already this season – against Bournemouth, Newcastle, and Atlético Madrid – the Reds have let two-goal leads slip, only to be rescued by late…

Slot has just unearthed Liverpool’s new Gerrard and it’s not Szoboszlai

Title: Unearthed | Author: Amie Kaufman / Meagan Spooner | Publisher: Disney-Hyperion (2018)

Starfield Episode 102: Unearthed

Been a hot minute but shoutout to my pub professor for making my day with the best piece of academic validation on my book proposal for UNEARTHED

Lowkey just want another day to myself but the horrors persist and so must I

I want to break you open

I found a mind I’d like to see

I found a mind I’d like to explore, endlessly

The year is bleeding by

And I have no choice but to accept the way our lives are turning out

source: puinginmain

I added another 3,000 words to unearthed today and now I don’t know what to do with myself but I can definitely say I will spend the rest of the day doing graphic design and reading comic books

Also here’s to my friend convincing me to finally watching parks and rec bc I need something new to start that isn’t DC related

Shout out to using my experience with my chronic illness to inform my MC Casey too

Where it all began.

You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you

Currently watching Unearthed on my brother’s HBO. Really awesome idea, but when you know too much about the cultures they are reffering to, all you can notice are the generalizations and inaccuracies.

First off- stop calling the scandinavian people vikings. They were not all vikings. That’s like saying an entire civilization was just called sailors.

Why you acting like it is astonishing these people could build complex burial mounds? It is a hole in the dirt. Just because they mostly used upside down boats as buildings doesn’t mean they were incapable of doing other things. Excuse them for not wanting to live in hobbit holes, smh.

All these things aren’t meant to be insulting, but they seem to stem from long-held generalizations often started as propaganda. Calling an entire people savages who spend their lives pillaging and terrorizing the people of Europe is maybe not actually helpful for learning more about the complexities of old civilizations.

3:18 PM EST January 6, 2025:

Johnny Cash - “Pocahontas”
From the box set Unearthed
(November 25, 2003)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

Neil Young cover

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