Water and Urbanism in Roman Britain

233 Pages·2021·3.286 MB·English

by  Jay Ingate

Water and Urbanism in Roman
Britain
The establishment of large-s cale water infrastructure is a defining aspect of
the process of urbanisation. In places like Britain, the Roman period
represents the first introduction of features that can be recognised and par-
alleled to our modern water networks. Writers have regularly cast these
innovations as markers of a uniform Roman identity spreading throughout
the Empire and bringing with it a familiar, modern, sense of what consti-
tutes civilised urban living. However, this is a view that has often neglected
to explain how such developments were connected to the important sym-
bolic and ritual traditions of waterscapes in Iron Age Britain.
Water and Urbanism in Roman Britain argues that the creation of
Roman water infrastructure forged a meaningful entanglement between
the process of urbanisation and significant local landscape contexts. As a
result, it suggests that archetypal Roman urban water features were often
more closely related to an active expression of local hybrid identities rather
than aligned to an incoming continental ideal. By questioning the familiar-
ity of these aspects of the ancient urban form, we can move away from the
unhelpful idea that the Roman precedent is a central tenet of the current
unsustainable relationship between water and our modern cities.
This monograph will be of interest to academics and students studying
aspects of Roman water management, urbanisation in Roman Britain and
theoretical approaches to landscape. It will also appeal to those working
more generally on past human interactions with the natural world.
Jay Ingate is currently a sessional lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church
University, UK. He was awarded his PhD by the University of Kent, UK in
2014. He has written articles on the interpretation of aqueducts in Roman
Britain, the development of Roman London’s waterscape and post- human
approaches to the Roman world.
Studies in Roman Space and Urbanism
Series editor: Ray Laurence
Macquarie University, Australia
Over the course of the last two decades the study of urban space in the
Roman world has progressed rapidly, with new analytical techniques,
many drawn from other disciplines such as architecture and urban studies,
being applied in the archaeological and literary study of Roman cities.
These dynamically interdisciplinary approaches are at the centre of this
series. The series includes both micro-l evel analyses of interior spaces and
macro-l evel studies of Roman cities (and potentially also wider spatial
landscapes outside the city walls). The series encourages collaboration and
debate between specialists from a wide range of study beyond the core dis-
ciplines of ancient history, archaeology and Classics, such as art history
and architecture, geography and landscape studies, and urban studies. Ulti-
mately the series provides a forum for scholars to explore new ideas about
space in the Roman city.
Water and Urbanism in Roman Britain
Hybridity and Identity
Jay Ingate
For further information about this series please visit www.routledge.
com/classicalstudies/series/SRSU
Water and Urbanism in
Roman Britain
Hybridity and Identity
Jay Ingate
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Jay Ingate
The right of Jay Ingate to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Names: Ingate, Jay, author.
Title: Water and Urbanism in Roman Britain: Hybridity and
Identity/Jay Ingate.
Description: Landon: New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis
Group, 2019. |
Series: Studies in Roman space and urbanism | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018057715 (print) | LCCN 2018057953
(ebook) | ISBN 9781315206707 (ebook) | ISBN 9781351797849
(web pdf ) | ISBN 9781351797825 (mobi/kindle) |
ISBN 9781351797832 (epub) | ISBN 9781138634695 (hardback:
alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Municipal water supply–England–History–To
1500. | Urbanization–England–History–To 1500. | Great Britain–
History–To 449.
Classification: LCC TD257 (ebook) | LCC TD257.I54 2019 (print)
| DDC 363.6/109362–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018057715
ISBN: 978-1-138-63469-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-20670-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
For my Mum

Contents
List of figures ix
Acknowledgements xi
1 Water and urbanism 1
Introduction 1
Water and twentieth-c entury approaches to Roman
urbanism 5
Justifying water networks 10
Modern water supply and the urban setting 13
The strange water of prehistoric temperate Europe 17
Water and hybrid urban identity 21
2 Hybridity in classical accounts of urban water 24
Meaning- laden Roman water 24
An entangled source 29
Building rivers: hybrid water flow 36
The hybrid baths 44
Hybrid urban water networks 55
3 Water in Roman Britain 59
Establishing a context for water 59
Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) 66
St Albans (Verulamium) 76
London (Londinium) 86
Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) 103
Dorchester (Durnovaria) 108
Wroxeter (Viroconium) 114
viii Contents
Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum) 120
Colchester (Camulodunum/Colonia Claudia Victricensis) 126
Chichester (Noviomagus) 132
Winchester (Venta Belgarum) 137
Canterbury (Durovernum) 140
Cirencester (Corinium) 147
York (Eboracum) 150
Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) 153
Caerwent (Venta Silurum) 155
Other towns 156
Manipulating urban identities: multidimensional approaches
to water supply 158
4 The value of water and new approaches to urban space 166
Water and hybridity in the Mediterranean 166
Hybrid motivations and functions for water supply in
Britain 169
Stranger things: defamiliarising Roman urbanism in
Britain 175
Changing environmental conditions and urban
waterscapes 179
Water and the identity of our urban future 182
Conclusions 185
References 188
Index 211
Figures
1.1 Locations of British towns analysed in this book 2
1.2 The Welland viaduct in Northamptonshire, showing the
similarity of its form to classical aqueducts 7
2.1 Examples of reclining river gods on Roman coins 27
2.2 The impressive structure of the Pont du Gard aqueduct
bridge outside Nimes in France 37
2.3 Drawing of coin issued by Trajan to commemorate the
construction of the Aqua Traiana 38
2.4 The baths of Caracalla 53
3.1 The site of Roman Lincoln and its wider waterscape 67
3.2 The Wigford Causeway and its impact on the waterscape
of Lincoln 68
3.3 Plan of Roman Lincoln with notable features 70
3.4 The potential course of the Lincoln aqueduct 73
3.5 The pre- Roman landscape of Verlamion 77
3.6 Roman Verulamium and the Folly Lane temple complex 79
3.7 Southwark, the Tabard Square temples and locations
with notable well concentrations 89
3.8 Roman London with the defining spatial influence of the
Thames and Walbrook 91
3.9 Locations of wells in the Middle Walbrook 93
3.10 Locations of bathhouses in Roman London 99
3.11 Roman Silchester with notable features 104
3.12 The course of the Roman aqueduct at Dorchester 110
3.13 The pits in the central areas of Roman Dorchester 112
3.14 Plan of Roman Wroxeter with some of its primary
features 117
3.15 Plan of Roman Leicester with the notable features of St
Nicholas Circle 121
3.16 A suggested course for the possible Raw Dykes aqueduct 123
3.17 The wider setting of Roman Colchester, with its
prominent earthwork features 127