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Journal of archaeology and ancient architecture

Tag Archives: fountain

La krene nell’area del teatro di Agrigento: dati preliminari

Authors: L.M. Caliò, A. Fino, G.M. Gerogiannis

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This paper reports the preliminary results of the research carried out west of the theater area of Agrigentum, with the aim of understanding and specifying the boundaries of the large public space in which the complex insists. The excavations of this sector, in fact, stand in continuity with those of the theater, constituting almost an appendix. The area, excavated since 2017, has returned over the years an intricate stratigraphy of overlapping structures that in 2022 led to the recognition of a krene in the lowest levels, the making of could be framed as part of the Teron construction activity. The importance of the discovery stands in the fact that at the complex water management system, consisting of galleries, hypogea and fine catchment systems, only a monumental fountain is known until now in the entire extention of the ancient city at the so-called Santuario Rupestre in S. Biagio. The achievements, moreover, are fueling a renewed interest in issues related to the water archaeology and particularly how it was experienced in daily life even in the urban and social organization of ancient cities.

La meta sudans augustea: note per una sua ricostruzione

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canteTra il 2002 e il 2003 nel cantiere di scavo dell’Università di Roma “La Sapienza” nella piazza del Colosseo, presso l’arco di Costantino, si ebbe uno straordinario rinvenimento. Proprio al di sotto della fontana di età flavia, nota come Meta Sudans, emersero i resti, immediatamente riconoscibili, di un monumento analogo: una fontana di epoca augustea del tutto simile a quella flavia, ma di dimensioni inferiori. Oltre ai resti in situ, lo scavo ha restituito anche diversi blocchi in marmo di Luni appartenenti alla decorazione architettonica del saliente. Questi elementi hanno consentito l’ipotesi di ricostruzione del monumento che viene presentata in questa sede.

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Between 2002 and 2003 in the excavation site of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in front of the Colosseum, near the Arch of Constantine,an extraordinary discovery was carried out. Just below the fountain of the Flavian age, known as Meta Sudans, the remains of a similar monument has been identified: a fountain of the Augustan age, very similar to the Flavian one, but smaller. Besides the remains in situ several blocks in Luni marble were also recovered, belonging to the architectural decoration of the salient. These elements have enabled the hypothesis of reconstruction of the monument, which is presented here.

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La rete idrica della Kos di età romana: persistenze e modificazioni rispetto alla città ellenistica

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In the town of Kos, the excavations carried out by the Italian archaeologists between 1912 and 1945 and the new investigations by the Greek Archaeological Service have revealed a complex system of water supply based on the integration, occurred during the Roman period, of a water network already set up since the foundation of the city, that took place in 366 BC on the basis of an urban Hippodamian scheme; this defined also a urban drainage system for the disposal of stormwater designed together with the road network. The water supply could rely on abundant natural springs located in the hills south-east of the city, supplemented by private wells and cisterns. The water usage involved public fountains and nymphaea, and, especially in Roman times, several bath buildings, whose first installation dates in a period between I and II cent. AD, with later changes until the mid-fourth century, when some of them changed their function and were transformed in religious buildings. To fed the thermae, an aqueduct was built in imperial period, although the baths were always equipped with storage tanks to compensate any reduction of the flow; to rationalize the use of water, the discharge of the thermal baths was conducted through pipes to flush the sewers of public latrines, always built nearby, while the houses were equipped with private sanitary facilities whose sewers used the drainage channels in the middle of the streets, later reworkings of the original channels of the first Hellenistic age. In conclusion, the water supply systems and wastewater disposal witness the remarkable persistence of the original Kos town water systems and above all attest to how the study of water management systems of a city may improve knowledge of its topography at the different stages of development.