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Water in Antiquity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Grahame Clark
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Extract

The basic importance of food in the daily lives both of individuals and of communities, and the all-pervading influence upon outlook and social structure exercised by the methods adopted to ensure its adequate supply have become more and more widely recognized among students of ancient society during recent years (1). Rather less attention has yet been paid to water (2), that other necessity of life, bound up so intimately with the distribution and density of human settlement, and linked at the same time with man’s exploitation of his physical environment. Yet water-supply merits the closest attention, not only of those who approach prehistory from a functionalist point of view, but of all those whose studies are in the last resort based on archaeological material. In the first place, the connexion between human settlement and sources of water offers a cardinal clue to the location of ancient sites; in the second, the dampness of wells and springs has made for conditions favourable to the preservation of objects, organic as well as inorganic, which in the course of time have found their way into their recesses; and in the third, the veneration in which sources have been held has fostered from time immemorial the deposition in their waters of offerings as welcome to the archaeologist as to the spirits themselves.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 18 , Issue 69 , March 1944 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1944

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References

1 The basic importance of food supply has been stressed by the present author in his Archaeology and Society, pp. 152-8, where references will be found to some of the most outstanding work in the archaeological reconstruction of ancient food supply. In the field of anthropology Audrey I. Richards’ Hunger and Work in a Savage Tribe (1932) and her later monograph Land, Labour and Diet in Northern Rhodesia (1939) may be cited as illustrating the new trend.

2 Reference should, however, be made to C. E. N. Bromehead’s excellent paper, ‘The Early History of Water-Supply’, Geog.J., 1942, XCIX, 142-51, 183-96.

3 Man, 1931, no. 91.

4 Proc. Prehist. Soc., 1939, V, 100-103.

5 J. G. D. Clark, The Mesolithic Settlement of Northern Europe, 1936, pp. 23-4, and Proc. Prehist. Soc., 1937, III, 473-5.

6 R. R. Schmidt, Die Diluviale Vorzeit Deutschlands, 1912, fig. 12.

7 J. G. D. Clark and W. F. Rankine, ‘Excavations at Farnham, Surrey’, Proc. Prehist. Soc., 1939. V. 61-118.

8 J. M. Hulth, ‘Über einige Kalktuffe aus Westgötland’, Bull. Geol. Inst. Univ., Upsala, IV, 1898.

9 A. Reith, ‘Vorgeschichtliche Funde aus dem Kalktuff der Schwäbischen Alb und des württembergischen Muschelkalkgebiets’, Mannus Z, 1938, pp. 562-84.

10 e.g. Flint and chert implements of Late Mesolithic appearance have been obtained from tufa deposits at Prestatyn, Flint, and at Blashenwell, Dorset, the mollusc assemblages from which have been diagnosed by Dr Wilfrid Jackson and Mr A. S. Kennard, respectively, as indicative of a rainfall higher than that prevailing today. See J. G. D. Clark, Proc. Prekist. Soc., IV, 330-4; V, 201-2.

11 op. cit. 142.

12 e. g. G. Hatt, Aarbørger, 1938, 161-5 and figs. 29-32 ; also 199-201 and figs. 73-5.

13 For example, one closely resembling that from Budsene is illustrated from modern Bulgaria by C. Wakarelski in his ‘Brunnen und wasserleitungen in Bulgaria’, Folk-Liv, 1939, taf. 2c.

13a C. A. Nordman, Aarbøger, 1920, pp. 63 ff. ; J. Bransted, Danmarks Oldtid, II, p. 202, fig. 187.

13b Well worship was interdicted by the Council of Tours A.D. 567, and prescribed by the laws and canons of kings Egbert, Edgar and Cnut, but the 26th canon of St. Anselm, 1102, merely enjoined that ‘no one attribute reverence or sanctity to a dead body or a fountain, without the Bishop’s authority’. R. C. Hope, The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England, 1903, p. XX.

13c Although sometimes enclosed by elaborate masonry, or even, as in the case of St. Madern’s ‘well’, Madron, by a complete chapel, they remain tites from which water could be scooped directly.

13d R. C. Hope, op. cit. pp. 112-15, suggests that the votive tablet inscribed to the goddess Coventina, which together with 24 altars and a number of vases, rings, beads, brooches and coins, was recovered from a well at Carrawburg on the Wall, were deposited by the guardians or priests of the well fleeing the Theodosian persecution.

13e Sir A. Evans, Palace of Minos, in, 137-8.

13f Iliad, 11, 305-7.

13g As evidence of the persistence of the custom of depositing coins, one may quote the instance of the children’s spring at Tolgs skn., Norrvidinge hd., Småland, from which were recovered no less than 540 silver and 5394 copper coins, ranging in date from Magnus Eriksson, 1319-64, to Oscar II. Vitt. Akad. Månadsblad, 1903-5, pp. 3-8.

13h J. Heierli, ‘Die bronzezeitliche Quellfassung von St. Moritz’, Ans. für Schzvetzerische Altertumskunde, N.F. Bd. IX (1907), 4 Hft., pp. 265-78 ; M. M. Lienau, ‘Die bronzezeitliche Quellfassung von St. Moritz’, Mannus Z., 1908, X, 25-30.

14 op. cit. 142.

15 The first well sited on strictly scientific principles to reach water in agreement with anticipation appears to have been sunk in Derbyshire in 1795. C. E. N. Bromehead, op. cit. 149.

16 ibid. 151.

17 General Pitt-Rivers excavated two wells in the Romano-British settlement at Woodcuts, Rushmore. Although the recovery of the metal handle and bands of a wooden bucket from the bottom of one of these (188 ft. deep) shows it once to have been in use, the well proved on excavation to be quite dry and remained so until refilled. In such a manner wells may sometimes give indication of a lowering of the local water table. Excavations in Cranborne Chase, 1887, 1, 27-8, and pl. V.

18 E. Mackay, The Indus Civilization, 1935, pp. 49-52, 57-8.

19 C. C. Edgar, Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos, 1904, fig. 51.

20 Sir A. Evans, The Palace of Minos, III, pp. 255-9 and figs. 175, 176.

21 O. Montelius, La civilisation primitive en Italie, 1895, pp. 495 ff. and pl. 108, nos. 1 and 2.

22 H. Jacobi, ‘Be- und entwässerung unserer limes Kastelle’, William Dorpfeld Festschrift (Berlin, 1933), pp. 49-70.

23 ibid. abb. 6, no. 4.

24 Thus two wells at Silchester, 27 ft. and 21 ft. deep were steined for 13 ft. and 7 ft. respectively. Archaeologia, LVII, 93-4.

25 Arch. J. XIII, 274.

26 Arch, LVIII, 415.

27 Arch, LVII, 94.

28 The remains of a ladder with fir uprights and oak rungs were found at the bottom of what appeared to be an unfinished well at Silchester. Arch, LVII, 244.

29 Karl Waller, ‘Der Stickenbüttler Brunnen’, P.Z., 1929, XX, pp. 250-65.

30 J. Richter, ‘Zur vorgeschichtlichen brunnenkunde’, M.A.G.W., 1923, LIII, pp. 49-68.

31 op. cit. p. 35.

32 For a representation in a tomb painting, see P. Leser, Entstehung und verbreitung des Pfluges, 1931, abb. 342. Wooden shaduf hooks were recovered by Petrie from graves 249 and 558 at Tarkhan, dating from the lind and mrd dynasties ; see Tarkhan 1 and Memphis, 1913, p. 25 and pl. X, no. 6.

33 H. Prinz, Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, 1916, bd. 8, p. 11.

34 P. Leser, op. cit. abb. 343.

35 ibid. p. 541.

36 ibid. abb. 345.

37 For an illustration of a modern Bulgarian example, see C. Wakarelski, op. cit. fig. 6.

38 P. Leser, op. cit. abb. 344.

39 ANTIQUITY, 1938, pl. IV, opp. p. 361.

40 C. Wakarelski, op. cit.

41 H. Jacobi, op. cit. abb. 6, no. 15.

42 ibid.

43 ibid. abb. 7, no. 3.

44 Simple draw wells in northeast Bulgaria and the Dobrudja observed by C. Wakarelski were sometimes as much as 100 m. deep.

45 Lothr. Jahob, 1910, XXII, p. 50g, pl. 41.

45a O. Paret, Die Römer in Wurttetnburg, III, s. 101 and abb. 65, illustrates a reconstruction of a Roman well-house.

46 The question of the supply of water in the hill-forts of southern England has frequently been discussed. In war men are willing to act—may be compelled to act—in a manner that normally would appear irrational. Under the conditions of primitive tribal warfare, a hill-top garrison would find little difficulty in fetching sufficient water from the valley, although dependence on an external source of water-supply must have placed barbarians at a fatal disadvantage when opposed by a civilized foe.

47 Palace of Minos, 11, pp. 462-3.

48 op. cit. 183.

49 Tiryns, fig. 118 ; Pkylakopi, fig. 57.

50 Palace of Minos, III, fig. 173.

51 H. Jacobi, op. cit. abb. 8.

52 H. Schliemann, Mycenae and Tiryns, 1878, p. 141.

53 Sir Arthur Evans has described (Palace of Minos, III, 236-51 and fig. 169 c) the ingenious methods employed to carry the rainwater round the angles formed by successive flights of steps and the devices for catching sediment.

54 A picturesque detail mentioned by C. C. Edgar, op. cit. 49, is that it is usual to let the first rainfall of the season escape, since the roof is generally fairly dirty from the family having slept there during the summer months.

55 Thus six circular lead containers with bronze edgings were found in the Shaft Graves at Mycenae G. [Karo, Die Sckachtgräher von Mykenai, Munich, 1930, pp. 160 and 231], while Wace found a mass of mouiten lead in burnt houses at Mycenae.

56 K. H. Jacob-Friesen, ‘Die Augrabung einer urgeschichtlichen Zisterne bei Algermissen, Kr. Hildesheim’, Nachrblt. für Niedersachsens Vorgeschichte, 1925, N.F., No. 2, 35.

57 ibid. 29-36.

58 M. Olsson, ‘En forntida brurm vid Gamia Uppsala’, Upplands Formininesförenings Tidskr. XXVIII.

59 op. cit. p. 60. On the Saalburg the larger cisterns were shallow, oblong structures, 8 by 9 metres in plan and 1 metre deep.

60 Sir A. Evans, Palace of Minos, III, p. 243.

61 e.g. flax is retted by seeping in soft water.

62 Thus a clay cistern, presumably for storing rainwater, was found immediately outside the outer wall of the living-room of one of the rectangular wooden houses of the Hallstatt stronghold of Neuhäusel, Westerwald. F. Behn, Kulturgesch. Wegweiser Röm.-Germ. Central Mus. Nr. 2 Das Haus in Vorrömischer Zeit, p. 23.

63 For a concise description, see Mackay, op. cit. pp. 42-9.

64 H. Schliemann, op. cit. pp. 204, 238 and 245.

65 C. C. Edgar, op. cit. p. 50 and fig. 36.

66 C. C. Edgar, op. cit. fig. 44.

67 C. C. Edgar, op. cit. pp. 13, 14 and 139 ff.

68 H. Schliemann, op. cit. pl. XXIV, d, e.

69 Odyssey, IV, 49-50.

70 Bull, de corresp. Hell. 1900, p. 515.

71 op. cit. fig. 117.

72 Iliad, XXII, 154-7.

73 Ecclesiastes, chap. XII.

74 According to V. G. Childe, What Happened in History, 1942, p. 224.

75 See T. A. Rickard, Man and Metals, pp. 421-4 and fig. 49.

76 See a terracotta from Alexandria of Ptolemaic date (B.M. no. 37563) ; also a wall painting at Pompeii (Illustrated London News, 17 December 1927).

77 See T. A. Rickard, op. cit. pp. 209-12. Diodorus was quoting from Agatharchides of Ciredus who visited the Egyptian gold mines in 170 B.C.

78 Strabo, Loeb transl. 3. 2. 8.

79 Strabo, Loeb transl., 4. 6. 7.

80 In an overshot mill the water is canalized and its force increased. According to G. Brett, ‘Byzantine Water-Mills’, ANTIQUITY, 1939, pp. 354-6, the overshot mill may be a development of the Late Empire.

81 A. W. Parsons, ‘A Roman water-mill in the Athenian Agora’, Hesperia, V, 70 ff.

82 Illustrated by G. Brett, op. cit.

83 See ANTIQUITY, 1939, XIII, 266.

84 For details of the industry, which survived in remote valleys up to the present day, reference should be made to Rütimeyer’s Ur-ethnologie der Schweiz, pp. 94 ff. In the modern survivals the water was canalized in open wooden leads with a sudden drop close to the wheel, the axle of which was used to turn the pot. The industry was mentioned by Pliny in his Nat. Hist. XXXVI, cap. 22.