Cement is a binder consisting of a mixture of limestone and calcined clay, subsequently milled has the property of hardening on contact with water.
8,000 years ago, mixing cement with water, sand and aggregates resulted in a new material that could be easily moulded and, when hardened, acquired characteristics such as strength, resistance and a remarkable durability. According to historical sources, the oldest building made of concrete is the floor of a hut in Lepensky Vir (Yugoslavia), dated in the year 5600 A..C. Since ancient pastes and mortars made with clay, plaster and lime were used to bind masonry in buildings.
The Egyptian people already used a mortar mixture of sand with cementitious material to bond stone blocks to construct their prodigious buildings. Part of one of the pyramids in Giza (2600 BC) was built with concrete. Natural cement was first used in ancient Greece, using tuff taken from the island of Santorini.
In the 1 century B.C a natural cement started to be used in ancient Rome and has withstood immersion
in seawater for thousands of years. In the nineteenth century, Joseph Aspdin and James Parker patented the Portland Cement, named for its similarity to Portland dark greenish grey stone.
