Pompeii’s Pitfalls: The Vulnerability of Water Supply in the Wake of Natural Disasters

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Past, Present, and Future of Water Supplies" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Roman water-supply system of Pompeii, Italy, has provided numerous insights into resource management and urbanization in the ancient Mediterranean world. It also provides a unique parallel for understanding the impacts of climate change and natural disasters on urban infrastructure today and in the past. Prior to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, a series of earthquakes caused significant damage to Pompeii, Herculaneum, and nearby towns. As evidenced at Pompeii, this damage greatly impacted the water-supply system, requiring repairs and necessitating changes to the distribution of water at the site. This paper synthesizes the current research on Pompeii’s aqueduct-fed system focusing specifically on the advantages and pitfalls of Pompeii’s approach to dealing with interruptions in water supply and damaged infrastructure that resulted from a series of natural disasters in the Bay of Naples region from 62–63 CE.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Past, Present, and Future of Water Supplies   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38230.0