The Power of Urban Water: Studies in Premodern Urbanism
Edited by: Nicola Chiarenza, Annette Haug, and Ulrich Müller
Water is a global resource for modern societies - and water was a global resource for pre-modern societies. The many different water systems serving processes of urbanisation and urban life in ancient times and the Middle Ages have hardly been researched until now. The numerous contributions to this volume pose questions such as what the basic cultural significance of water was, the power of water, in the town and for the town, from different points of view. Symbolic, aesthetic, and cult aspects are taken up, as is the role of water in politics, society, and economy, in daily life, but also in processes of urban planning or in urban neighbourhoods. Not least, the dangers of polluted water or of flooding presented a challenge to urban society.
The contributions in this volume draw attention to the complex, manifold relations between water and human beings. This collection presents the results of an international conference in Kiel in 2018. It is directed towards both scholars in ancient and mediaeval studies and all those interested in the diversity of water systems in urban space in ancient and mediaeval times.
2. From Nature to Topography
Water in the Cities of Roman Northern Italy
Patric-Alexander Kreuz
- Pages:
- 13–30
Abstract
The Po and its numerous tributaries were a dominant feature of Roman northern Italy. Ancient authors emphasize the region’s richness in wa ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS3. Fountains and the Ancient City
Social Interactions, Practical Uses, and Pleasant Sights
Nicolas Lamare
- Pages:
- 31–50
Abstract
Fountains were remarkable buildings in ancient cities. First, their functional aspect as water suppliers made them essential to daily life. ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS4. Water, Social Space and Architecture at Selinous: the Case of the Urban Sanctuary
Nicola Chiarenza
- Pages:
- 51–68
Abstract
The urban sanctuary of Selinous rose on the Acropolis plateau, over an area rich in fresh water and close to the marshy lagoon of the river ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS5. Fountains and Basins in Greek Sanctuaries
On the Relationship Between Ritual Performance and Architecture
Philipp Kobusch
- Pages:
- 69–84
Abstract
Ancient written sources emphasise the importance of water sources for Greek sanctuaries. However, this significance is only mirrored in e ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS6. Water in Early Christian Ritual: Baptism and Baptisteries in Corinth
Christiane Zimmermann
- Pages:
- 85–104
Abstract
Water has been the central element of Christian baptism since the very beginnings of Christianity. After briefly introducing the origins and ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS7. Aquatic Pasts & the Watery Present: Water and Memory in the Fora of Rome
Dylan K. Rogers
- Pages:
- 105–122
Abstract
The Forum Romanum in Rome is a space that was constructed on an aquatic landscape - and subsequent built structures there reminded ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS8. Water and Decentring Urbanism in the Roman Period: Urban Materiality, Post-Humanism and Identity
Adam Rogers
- Pages:
- 123–142
Abstract
In this chapter, the relationship between water and urbanism in the Roman period is examined by looking at the ways in which water formed ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS9. Water and Urban Structures in the Narrative Worlds of Courtly Novels − Aesthetic and Symbolic Functions
Margit Dahm-Kruse
- Pages:
- 143–156
Abstract
Medieval poets used water as a complex metaphor for a wide range of purposes. Through examples taken from the 13th-century novels ‘Herzog E ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS10. Syracusan Water Networks in Antiquity
Sophie Bouffier
- Pages:
- 157–178
Abstract
During a long period, until the beginning of the 21st century, a lack of interest about the hydraulics in ancient Sicilian towns prevailed: ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS11. Meeting Water Needs as a Major Challenge in an Urban Context
Examples from the Danube Region (1300–1600)
Elisabeth Gruber
- Pages:
- 179–196
Abstract
Water appears as a powerful and influential medium in a tight network of relations between human action and the material world with complex i ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS12. Ice Jams and their Impact on Urban Communities from a Long-term Perspective (Middle Ages to the 19th Century)
Christian Rohr
- Pages:
- 197–212
Abstract
Ice jams and subsequent floods were among the most disastrous events for riverside cities in pre-modern times. An ice jam could cause th ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS13. Medieval and Post-Medieval Urban Water Supply and Sanitation
Archaeological Evidence from Göttingen and North German Towns
Betty Arndt
- Pages:
- 213–228
Abstract
Accessibility to clean water is a fundamental need of medieval towns. It was a necessary supply in private households, in craft and industr ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS14. Harbourscapes
Three Examples from Early to High Medieval Northern Europe
Ulrich Müller
- Pages:
- 229–248
Abstract
The port as an interface between the town and its (maritime-fluvial) hinterland is a place of complex spatial interactions. Habourscape ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS15. Human Impact on Hydrology
Direct and Indirect Consequences of Medieval Urbanisation in Southern Germany
Rainer Schreg
- Pages:
- 249–264
Abstract
It is the aim of this contribution to widen the perspective on urban water. Beyond the archaeological traces of water management rela ... Show More
OPEN ACCESS16. Water as an Economic Resource and as an Environmental Challenge Within the Urbanisation Process of the Rhine Valley in the 13th Century
Gabriel Zeilinger
- Pages:
- 265–270
Abstract
The medieval urbanisation of Europe, not least in its manifestation in the region presented here, embraced the whole natural landscape as w ... Show More
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