Dec 9 (Reuters) – Scientists excavating the ruins of Pompeii have discovered a construction site left frozen in time by the eruption of Italy’s Mount Vesuvius volcano in 79 AD, clarifying the ingredients and methods behind the durable self-healing concrete the ancient Romans used to revolutionize architecture.

The site represents a building project that ‍was underway when the eruption buried Pompeii under volcanic ash and rock. The researchers came across rooms where the walls were unfinished and piles of premixed dry material and tools for weighing and measuring were in place for preparing concrete.

“Studying it truly felt as if I had traveled back in time and was standing beside the workers as they mixed and placed their concrete,” said Admir Masic, a Massachusetts Institute of Technol

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