Abstract
The Pietra dell’Oglio bridge is the only Roman infrastructure that crosses the Ofanto River between Mirabella Eclano (Aeclanum in Campania) and Venosa (Venusia in Basilicata), just near the border between Campania and Basilicata. The bridge was built on a substrate consisting of the stable middle Miocene Cerreta-Bosco di Pietra Palomba Sandstone (ACP) and where the Ofanto River valley is narrower. The current state of the bridge shows that 18 architectural and structural elements are original, 12 were restored, 1 was modified, 4 were reconstructed, and 4 were added in the last century. The original architectural and structural elements (ASEs) are built by the technique of opus quadratum and opus incertum using the pebbles of the Ofanto River and ashlars of phytoclastic travertine and ACP Sandstone cemented by very hard mortar. The opus incertum technique and its use for many bridges in Italy and France suggest that the Pietra dell’Oglio bridge was built between the II and I century BC at the service of a very important public road. The present research is allowed to identify the Pietra dell’Oglio bridge with the Pons Aufidi related to the old Appian Way layout between Mirabella Eclano and Venosa and contributes to improving the knowledge of Roman bridge engineering, particularly in Campania.
Highlights
Bridges are infrastructures of primary importance in the history of humanity because they connect the peoples on Earth, facilitating communication between them and allowing the exchange of civilizations and cultures
The original architectural and structural elements (ASEs) are built by the technique of opus quadratum and opus incertum using the pebbles of the Ofanto River and ashlars of phytoclastic travertine and ACP Sandstone cemented by very hard mortar
Galliazzo (1995) proposes to classify Roman bridges based on materials and construction techniques, indicating the Italic type characterized by face with opus quadratum and internal structure with masonry work, the Valdostan type with an arch or twin arches, the Severian type which is an updated version of the first type, and the Campanian type built with masonry and face in small apparatus including opus testaceum and/or opus mixtum with alternating brick beds and opus reticulatum beds, and ornamental complement of opus vittatum or vittatum mixtum
Summary
Bridges are infrastructures of primary importance in the history of humanity because they connect the peoples on Earth, facilitating communication between them and allowing the exchange of civilizations and cultures. Bridges are essential for ancient and modern cities and for the road network, to overcome rivers and smaller waterways. They were built in Roman times by valid designers and civilian and military workers, often in conditions of difficult logistic and complex morphological situations, by boats and ships, wood, masonry, and mixed type of materials with masonry substructure and wooden superstructure. The impressive construction of roads and bridges in the II and I centuries BC created a complex and expensive network of urban and territorial infrastructures because they required, in addition to construction, restoration, reconstruction and maintenance. According to Tito Livio from the II century BC the contract institute was applied (locatio conductio operis) to organize the works for the roads and bridges to tenant entrepreneurs (conductores viarum)
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