Ancient Mesopotamians made rock from silt
Residents of a second-millennium-B.C. Mesopotamian city transformed soil into synthetic basalt for constructing buildings and grinding grain.
References:
Stone, E.C., et al. 1998. From shifting silt to solid stone: The manufacture of synthetic basalt in ancient Mesopotamia. Science 280(June 26):2091.
Sources:
Elizabeth C. Stone
State University of New York
Department of Anthropology
Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384
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