A mosaic showing the Carthage Circus. University of Chicago, Wikimedia Commons
Posted on 07/09/2016 8:36:53 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
On the north coast of Africa lie the ruins of a city that came within a hairbreadth of defeating the might of Rome. Now archaeologists digging at the famous Circus of Carthage have revealed a startlingly advanced system to cool down horses and chariots during races...
Key to the discovery of the clever cooling system at the Circus of Carthage, the biggest sporting arena outside Rome, was the detection of water resistant mortar...
The discovery was made at the spina, the median strip of the circus, around the ends of which the charioteers would turn during races. The spina would often feature ornate columns and statues.
As was the custom in ancient racetracks, water basins had been placed along the spina of Carthage, the archaeologists realized. Sparsores – sprinklers –would dip clay amphorae into the basins, from which they would sprinkle water on the chariots, says Dr Ralf Bockmann, who is directing the excavation Together with his Tunisian colleague, Dr Hamden Ben Romdhane...
This is a common technique at circuses; well-preserved water basins have also been found at the circus of Maxentius outside of Rome on the Via Appia. Water basins of the type are shown on a mosaic from Carthage showing the circus and the spina.
As for the sparsores, this was evidently not a job for the faint of heart. "The sparsores would usually be on foot, directly on the spina, presumably at the level of the arena, to cool down the chariot wheels driving by at high speed. How exactly the cooling was organized is not clear. But for sure, it must have been a dangerous business," adds Bockmann.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
A mosaic showing the Carthage Circus. University of Chicago, Wikimedia Commons
Speaking of which, the new Ben Hur movie looks good but it is pretty much devoid of Christ.
Just a heads up.
Maybe they were just trying to keep down the dust.
Actually the sprinkler systems were elephants spraying water on the wheels. The mosaic was done by a democrat. Carthaginians also raced elephants and donkeys there.
I remember seeing that cooling system on an episode of the flintstones.
I have been on a jag of Greco/Roman era history. Just got a new one on the Punic Wars. While I have read a number of books focus on Hannibal, Cato the Elder, Scipio these are meant to take in the whole scope.
There is a lot of recent stuff that is very good — Anthony Everett is coming out with an overview of Greek history in December.
I would love to know your reading list! Do you have any favorites you can recommend?
Neat, but I was looking for something more technologically advanced than runners with jars: maybe a gravity-powered sprinkler system. Could have been done, if the cisterns were high enough and then pipes narrow enough ...
It’s nice but I don’t see the “smart” part of this cooling “system” unless the guys who poured water on horses to cool them down had advanced physic degrees, or maybe they were the local Jeopardy champions?
Better headline:
“Man discovers weird trick for cooling horses”
Interesting story, thanks.
In 1982, through Earthwatch, I actually spent two weeks helping excavate a corner of the circus in Carthage. All that was left at the time was a depression that had been plowed as a field. But we did come across seating and even a skeleton of a horse. Archeology teams have been racing to excavate key sites in Carthage as the popular suburb to Tunis grows.
M4L. Greek History
It would appear that the Carthaginians built other much more massive works discernible only by satellite imaging.
It`s in my book.
Start with the recent output of Anthony Everett:
Cicero, the Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician
Augustus, The Life of Rome’s First Emperor
The Rise of Rome
Hadrian, and the Triumph of Rome
Add in the easier stuff by Tom Holland:
Persian Fire, the First World Empire and the Battle for the West
Rubicon, the Last Years of the Republic
Dynasty, The Rise and Fall of the House of Caeser
The Forge of Christendom, the End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West.
You might even start with his translation of Herodotus if you want early sources.
Lidell Hart’s Scipio is an easy intro to the Roman Hero of the Punic Wars.
O’Connel’s The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic
Now let’s add in Victor Davis Hanson, not only a great historian but a good conservative essayist.
A War Like No Other
The Western Way of War
Carnage and Culture
The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern
Paul Cartledge, Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World
(Read this after Holland’s Persian Fire which sets it in context better than anything else I have read)
My favorite early source is Polybius. Get a good cloth back edition of the complete Histories.
Add in Dying Every Day, Seneca at the Court of Nero by James Romm and you should have a good start.
I should add that for most of the last fifteen years before I retired, I traveled for work extensively. This kept me in small apartments, hotels, on airplanes etcetera so I had more time to read than an average person.
Thanks, yeah, some of those guys got rich.
Neat!
Thank you for that list!!!
though actually this circus seems to have no relation to ancient Carthage which was utterly destroyed; but to Roman era Carthage.
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