Purposes and Methods

Abstract

Water has been a persistent and consistent factor in urban development and history. One advantage in studying water as it relates to the process of urbanization is that the behavior of water, and therefore to a large extent the management of water, are “culture free.” As Mendelssohn (1974) has shown with respect to the physics of pyramid construction and collapse, some aspects of the ancient world—religion, marriage customs—are culture bound but others—behavior of construction materials, water—are much less conditioned by human preferences. Thus, insights from modern hydraulic engineering can have “chronology-free” validity. We can confidently turn to hydraulic engineers for insight into ancient water management, since water still behaves as it always has and is to be managed as it always was. For instance, modern engineers looking for locations for bridges and dams to be built anew as part of Rome’s modern water system, again and again find ancient ruins of bridges and dams just where they have determined are the best locations for new ones. Also, at Pergamon, the long-distance waterlines that supplied the Hellenistic and Roman city have been studied by professional hydraulic engineers, who followed each line through the countryside. When puzzled by a missing segment of the ancient line, they asked, “Where would I put the line next, if I were designing it?” and most often they found fragments of the missing segment just in that place, because the behavior of flowing water and the concepts for controlling it remain constant. Comprehensive treatment of the topic of ancient Greek water management and its close relation to the process of urbanization in the Greek world of the eighth to first centuries B.C. would involve the work of many scholars. To cite one name only of many for each subtopic, one could mention the following authors who have studied or are currently studying aspects of the question: Brinker on cisterns Camp on pipe classification (in progress); Camp has already studied the water system of Athens Doxiadis et al. on urban location Eck on legal and administrative aspects (in progress) Fahlbusch on long-distance water supply lines Garbrecht on the water supply of Pergamon Ginouves on baths Glaser on fountainhouses Grewe on the surveying of ancient waterlines and tunnels Gunay and his students on karst geology in southern Turkey Martin on urban form