Posted on 01/25/2010 3:39:35 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Pair of British amateur archaeologists believe they have found the hidden source of a Roman aqueduct 1,900 years after it was inaugurated by the Emperor Trajan.
The underground spring lies behind a concealed door beneath an abandoned 13th century church on the shores of Lake Bracciano, 35 miles north of Rome.
Exploration of the site has shown that water percolating through volcanic bedrock was collected in underground grottoes and chambers and fed into a subterranean aqueduct, the Aqua Traiana, which took it all the way to the imperial capital.
Prof. Lorenzo Quilici in the Aqua Traiana
Centuries later, it provided water for the very first Vatican, after Rome began to convert to Christianity under the Emperor Constantine.
The underground complex, which is entangled with the roots of huge fig trees, was discovered by father and son documentary makers Edward and Michael O'Neill, who stumbled on it while researching the history of Rome's ancient aqueducts.
They recruited a leading authority on Roman hydro-engineering, Prof Lorenzo Quilici from Bologna University, who confirmed that the structure was Roman, rather than medieval as had long been believed.
Using long iron ladders to descend into the bowels of the sophisticated system, they found that the bricks comprising the aqueduct's walls are laid in a diamond shape known as "opus reticulatum" a distinctive Roman style of engineering.
"A lot of the stone work bears the original Roman tool marks," Edward O'Neill said.
The underground labyrinth of galleries has remained almost unknown to archaeologists because for hundreds of years it was full of water.
It was only when modern bore pumps started directing the supply to the nearby town of Bracciano that the water level dropped dramatically and the subterranean complex became accessible.
The vaulted ceiling was decorated with a rare
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I like the diamond pattern.
I see, I SEE, three men upon an aquaduct singing...
Every body aught to have a maid!
Every body aught to have a working girl,
A serving girl, to putt her around the house!
Your not kidding when you said they were so cool.
They used a level and plumb bob. The Romans seemed to have perfected it. I'm pretty sure it was worked out before the Romans...
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Thanks GeronL and colorado tanker for those lively pings, and thanks bruinbirdman for posting this topic. |
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The formula is still lost. To tis day we have no clue how they did. Some speculate it had to do with mixing in volcanic ash, which incidentally does make superior cement, but as far as to how thw Romans made cement, we have no clue.
lol.
woohoo 2000 year old water!!
lol
hey... it LOOKED like a sewer in the pic. heh
The angle of decline on the aquiduct if I remember was very tiny per mile
I know they say that no question is a stupid question but really from an adult? Dude Rome gave us EVERYTHING!
Reg: All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Attendee: Brought peace?
Reg: Oh, peace - shut up!
Reg: There is not one of us who would not gladly suffer death to rid this country of the Romans once and for all.
Dissenter: Uh, well, one.
Reg: Oh, yeah, yeah, there’s one. But otherwise, we’re solid.
I thought they used a water level
I would love to see that. Some of the stuff they built is almost scary how well it held up. Thanks.
What is interesting is the knowledge that was probably lost from the fall of Rome. This is probably why the Medieval was so bridge was so crude.
“public order”
Yup - Obama is going to give us the reverse of public order. We may end up devolving into chaos.
The running & fresh water and sanitation were a huge thing.
The city-state could never have grown because without water/sanitation you would have had disease.
Shoes for the dead.
What chance does that returning deceased war veteran
have for the mule he’s been dreaming about?
Well, there is that whole “Res Publica” thing. “That thing of the people.” We call it, the rule of law. Maybe a better tranlation would be “The Roman Constitution.”
Of course, we have abandoned it, for the rule of a demi-god - “What is legal for the god, is illegal for the people.”
See the complete set aside of the rule of law in the Chrysler bankruptcy, eg.
Go, Romans!
After the Western Empire collapsed the West would not achieve what the Romans did in terms of water works and sanitation until the mid-19th century.
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