Wikinventia — Atlas of discoveries and inventions · Civilization Birth

Minoan hydraulic plaster — Minoans of Knossos and Tylissos

~1600 BC · Transmission: Global
EngineeringMaterialsMethodMinoan

Minoan civilization on Crete, during the Bronze Age (second millennium BC), develops sophisticated water-management systems including cisterns, aqueducts, wells, and drainage systems, documented at the sites of Knossos, Tylissos, Zakros, Archanes, and Myrtos-Pyrgos. To waterproof these structures, the Minoans apply plasters and mortars with hydraulic properties to the walls and floors of cisterns. Archaeometric research at Late Bronze Age Cypriot sites (culturally closely related to the Minoan-Mycenaean world) has confirmed, via polarizing microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction, the presence of mortars with deliberately incorporated artificial pozzolanic material, replacing the usual inert aggregate to improve the waterproofing of cisterns and water channels. This Aegean hydraulic-mortar technical tradition continues into pre-classical Rhodes and constitutes, according to specialists in ancient-mortar archaeometry, the technological basis on which the hydraulic mortars later perfected by the Greeks and Romans would develop.

Historical regionCrete (Minoan civilization); more detailed archaeometric evidence in Cyprus
Primary sourceArchaeological evidence: cisterns at Knossos, Tylissos, Zakros, Myrtos-Pyrgos, Chamaizi. Maravelaki-Kalaitzaki, P. et al.; Moropoulou, A. et al.; Theodoridou, M. et al. — archaeometric studies of Late Bronze Age mortars in Cyprus.
Original languageMycenaean Greek / English (modern studies)
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