A team of civil engineers in France have revealed that the Romans had ancient technology for building structures that acted like modern-day electromagnetic cloaking devices. The pattern of foundations in some major Roman monuments, like the Colosseum, provided protection against earthquakes by bending seismic waves around them.
Ancient Archaeological Metamaterials
The Romans used architectural features in their constructions which acted like ‘metamaterials’, artificial structures that can manipulate electromagnetic or sound waves. For example, surrounding a building with a lattice of holes or solid objects embedded in the soil can have the effect of diverting seismic waves around the monument, effectively creating a seismic ‘invisibility cloak’.
According to Physics World, “When seismic waves within a certain range of wavelengths pass through the lattice, multiple reflections in the lattice interfere with one another destructively to create a band gap that results in a significant reduction in the shaking of the building.”