Around the Neighboring Watering Hole: Comparative Analysis of Fountains in Pompeii and Herculaneum

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Water and Sanitation Management in the Mediterranean " session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Substantial urban development is linked to the first century CE in Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as throughout the Bay of Naples. An important component of this development included the construction of the Aqua Augusta, or Serino Aqueduct as it is known today. The associated lead pipe network supplied pressured water for private residential display, businesses, and public fountains. Water collected from public fountains was especially valuable as population density increased and more people came to live in apartments that lacked traditional means of water collection (e.g., cisterns). In the summers of 2018 and 2019, the authors conducted fieldwork in order to investigate the fountains at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Our initial research focused on the fountains in Pompeii. However, the question remained, are all fountains in the Roman world the same? This paper expands on previous research and focuses on the significant differences in construction and use-wear of fountains between the neighboring towns.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Water and Sanitation Management in the Mediterranean

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32218