Water Delivery Strategies in Ancient Rome

Water Delivery Strategies in Ancient Rome Rome’s first raised aqueduct, Aqua Anio Vetus, was built in 273 BC; prior to that, people living at higher elevations had to depend on natural streams for their water. If inhabitants living at higher elevations did not have access to springs or the aqueduct, they’d have to be dependent on the remaining existing techniques of the day, cisterns that gathered rainwater from the sky and subterranean wells that received the water from under ground. To supply water to Pincian Hill in the early 16th century, they utilized the new process of redirecting the stream from the Acqua Vergine aqueduct’s underground network. Through its original building and construction, pozzi (or manholes) were located at set intervals along the aqueduct’s channel. The manholes made it easier to thoroughly clean the channel, but it was also achievable to use buckets to extract water from the aqueduct, as we witnessed with Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi when he bought the property from 1543 to 1552, the year he passed away. Apparently, the rainwater cistern on his property wasn’t adequate to fulfill his needs. To give himself with a much more streamlined way to gather water, he had one of the manholes opened, giving him access to the aqueduct below his residence.

Ancient Water Fountain Artists

Water feature designers were multi-talented individuals from the 16th to the late 18th century, often serving as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and cultivated scholars all in one person. During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci illustrated the artist as a innovative genius, creator and scientific virtuoso. He carefully annotated his findings in his now famed notebooks about his studies into the forces of nature and the properties and motion of water. Transforming private villa settings into innovative water showcases packed with symbolic meaning and natural beauty, early Italian water feature designers coupled resourcefulness with hydraulic and gardening ability. The humanist Pirro Ligorio provided the vision behind the wonders in Tivoli and was distinguished for his abilities in archeology, architecture and garden design. Masterminding the phenomenal water marbles, water features and water antics for the numerous properties near Florence, other fountain creators were well versed in humanistic themes and classical technical texts.

Outdoor Fountains And Their Use In Crete & Minoa

Outdoor Fountains And Their Use In Crete & Minoa A variety of kinds of conduits have been discovered through archaeological digs on the island of Crete, the cradle of Minoan civilization. They were used for water supply as well as removal of storm water and wastewater. Stone and clay were the substances of choice for these conduits. There were terracotta pipes, both round and rectangle-shaped as well as pathways made from the same materials. These included cone-like and U-shaped clay pipes which were unique to the Minoans. Outdoor Fountains Use Crete & Minoa 187010242214695564.jpg

Outdoor Fountains Use Crete & Minoa 187010242214695564.jpg

Clay pipelines were utilized to administer water at Knossos Palace, running up to three meters beneath the floor surfaces. The terracotta pipes were also used for accumulating and storing water. This required the terracotta pipes to be capable of holding water without losing it. Underground Water Transportation: Originally this system seems to have been fashioned not for convenience but to offer water to certain people or rites without it being observed. Quality Water Transportation: There is also evidence which indicates the piping being utilized to supply fountains separately of the domestic process.