Jean-Philippe Goiran

Piraeus, the ancient island of Athens: Evidence from Holocene sediments and historical archives

The famous Greek geographer Strabo wrote in the fi rst century A.D., that Piraeus was formerly an island and lay ‘over against’ the mainland, from which it got its name. To validate Strabo’s hypothesis, cartographic and historical data were compiled with multiproxy paleoenvironmental analyses and radiocarbon dating from a series of boreholes drilled in the Cephissus coastal plain, southwest of Athens, Greece. The results of this interdisciplinary geoarchaeological research demonstrate the reliability of Strabo’s text by revealing that Piraeus was indeed an island. In early Holocene time, the rocky hill of Piraeus was linked to the mainland of Attica. During the late to fi nal Neolithic Period (4850‐3450 B.C.), Piraeus became an island in a shallow marine bay, due to sea-level rise in the Holocene. Between 2850 and 1550 B.C., in the Early and Middle Bronze Age, Piraeus was separated from the mainland by a wide lagoon. In the fi fth century B.C., Themistocles, Cimon, and then Pericles connected Athens to Piraeus by building two “long walls” partly built on a residual coastal marsh called the Halipedon. This study reveals an impressive example of past landscape evolution.

Palynology and ostracodology at the Roman port of ancient Ostia (Rome, Italy)

New detailed palynological and ostracodological analyses together with texture data from a sediment core drilled in Ostia Antica confirm the existence of the ancient Ostia harbour and its location by the Tiber River. Using the different proxies analysed in this work and chronologically framing the sediment record with three AMS radiocarbon dates, four phases have been singled out: pre-harbour, harbour bay under fluvial influence, more protected harbour basin and post-harbour phase. Ostracodology is used to reconstruct the marine versus freshwater influence in the basin. Palynology is used to reconstruct the plant landscape and the surrounding environment. Phases with low pollen concentration and expansions of NPPs suggest soil erosion and are alternated with quieter ones, where human impact was very clear. Deciduous oaks typical of coastal plain forests are the main taxon during the harbour phases. The occurrence of riparian trees increases in periods with low pollen concentration, high NPPs and very high pine percentages. These should be the periods in which important sediment inputs inside the harbour basin arrived and could be the expression of intense flooding phases. The comparison between the ostracod assemblages recovered in the two cores and has led to speculate a complex harbour structure. A separation could explain the micropalaeontological differences between the cores. Thus, we suggest that a pier must have been built in order to protect the inner harbour from the marine influence and to unload the goods transported by the big ships.

A lead isotope perspective on urban development in ancient Naples

Significance A well-dated sedimentary sequence from the ancient harbor of Naples sheds new light on an old problem: could the great AD 79 Vesuvius eruption have affected the water supply of the cities around the Bay of Naples? We here show, using Pb isotopes, that this volcanic catastrophe not only destroyed the urban lead pipe water supply network, but that it took the Roman administration several decades to replace it, and that the commissioning of the new system, once built, occurred nearly instantaneously. Moreover, discontinuities in the Pb isotopic record of the harbor deposits prove a powerful tool for tracking both Naples’ urbanization and later major conflicts at the end of the Roman period and in early Byzantine times. The influence of a sophisticated water distribution system on urban development in Roman times is tested against the impact of Vesuvius volcanic activity, in particular the great eruption of AD 79, on all of the ancient cities of the Bay of Naples (Neapolis). Written accounts on urbanization outside of Rome are scarce and the archaeological record sketchy, especially during the tumultuous fifth and sixth centuries AD when Neapolis became the dominant city in the region. Here we show that isotopic ratios of lead measured on a well-dated sedimentary sequence from Neapolis’ harbor covering the first six centuries CE have recorded how the AD 79 eruption was followed by a complete overhaul of Neapolis’ water supply network. The Pb isotopic signatures of the sediments further reveal that the previously steady growth of Neapolis’ water distribution system ceased during the collapse of the fifth century AD, although vital repairs to this critical infrastructure were still carried out in the aftermath of invasions and volcanic eruptions.

The development and characteristics of ancient harbours. Applying the PADM chart to the case studies of Ostia and Portus

Over the last 20 years, the geoarchaeology of ancient harbours has been a very active area of research around the Mediterranean basin, generating much palaeoenvironmental data from many sites, including estimations of sedimentation rates, the height of the ancient sea-level at different dates and palaeo-geographical reconstructions. Combining this information has proved a major challenge. This article proposes a new chart called the Palaeoenvironmental Age-Depth Model (PADM chart), that allows the researchers to combine all relevant indicators in order to estimate harbour potential of a given ancient port, and to generate comparable data between harbours in terms of degree of closure and water depth available against a synchronised chronology. This new approach, developed in the context of the ERC-funded RoMP Portuslimen project, takes into account estimations of water depths relating to differing Roman ship draughts at different periods. It is tested against the palaeoenvironmental evidence published over 10 years from two Roman harbours located at the mouth of the river Tiber: Ostia and Portus. This reveals that: (1) there has been an underestimate of the real sedimentation rates due to the margins of error of the radiocarbon dates; (2) there was effective control of the water column by dredging; (3) there were different periods of control of the sedimentation. We suggest that the navigability of the Ostia harbour by ships with shallower draughts was maintained until sometime between the 2nd c. BC and 1st c. AD, while at Portus it was retained until the 6th—7th c. AD.

Rome’s urban history inferred from Pb-contaminated waters trapped in its ancient harbor basins

Significance Isotopic evidence showing that Rome’s lead water pipes were the primary source of lead pollution in the city’s runoff reveals the sedimentary profile of lead pollution in the harbor at Ostia to be a sensitive record of the growth of Rome’s water distribution system and hence, of the city itself. The introduction of this lead pipe network can now be dated to around the second century BC, testifying to a delay of about a century and a half between the introduction of Rome’s aqueduct system and the installation of a piped grid. The diachronic evolution of anthropogenic lead contamination is able to capture the main stages of ancient Romes urbanization until its peak during the early high empire. Heavy metals from urban runoff preserved in sedimentary deposits record long-term economic and industrial development via the expansion and contraction of a city’s infrastructure. Lead concentrations and isotopic compositions measured in the sediments of the harbor of Ostia—Rome’s first harbor—show that lead pipes used in the water supply networks of Rome and Ostia were the only source of radiogenic Pb, which, in geologically young central Italy, is the hallmark of urban pollution. High-resolution geochemical, isotopic, and 14C analyses of a sedimentary core from Ostia harbor have allowed us to date the commissioning of Rome’s lead pipe water distribution system to around the second century BC, considerably later than Rome’s first aqueduct built in the late fourth century BC. Even more significantly, the isotopic record of Pb pollution proves to be an unparalleled proxy for tracking the urban development of ancient Rome over more than a millennium, providing a semiquantitative record of the water system’s initial expansion, its later neglect, probably during the civil wars of the first century BC, and its peaking in extent during the relative stability of the early high Imperial period. This core record fills the gap in the system’s history before the appearance of more detailed literary and inscriptional evidence from the late first century BC onward. It also preserves evidence of the changes in the dynamics of the Tiber River that accompanied the construction of Rome’s artificial port, Portus, during the first and second centuries AD.

Introduction to the special issue: Roman canals studies—main research aims

This special issue of Water History is the first of a set of two volumes dedicated to canals and their evolution through time. These two publications derive from a workshop organised at the Maison de l’Orient et de la Mediterranee in Lyon (France) under the sponsorship of the University of Lyon 2 and the CNRS, on the 23rd and 24th of May 2012, entitled ‘‘Diverting water... Canals through time: a technological answer to socio-environmental variability’’. The themes of the workshop focused on ‘‘canals’’ and addressed the question of long-term interactions between nature and society, as well as the organisation and regulation of hydrologic and anthropic systems through time. This first volume focuses on a socio-cultural context: the ancient Roman world, i.e. an archetypical hydraulic society. The case studies developed are related to canals in environments characterized by complex interactions at different spatial and temporal scales (deltaic area, alluvial plain or mountains). They do not include urban water systems as the latter are too specific (water supply of the cities by aqueducts or the drain of waste water by sewers). The second volume will be structured around the issue of water management in

Un « modèle âge-profondeur paléoenvironnemental » pour interpréter les séquences sédimentaires en milieu portuaire (Portus, Italie)

The geoarchaeology of ancient harbours is based on palaeoenvironmental and palaeogeomorphological analysis and considers data issued from archaeological and historical sources. Many different kinds of evidence need to be taken into account concerning the organisation of the harbour, its chronology, and its dynamics. The “Palaeoenvironmental Age-Depth Model” (PADM) was developed in the context of a European Union (ERC Adanced Grant) funded project studying Roman ports across the Mediterranean Sea. It allows researchers to integrate all the data relevant to reconstructions of the development of harbour potential through time. The PADM is based on the analysis of one or several stratigraphic sequences with dates integrated within a classic “age-depth” model. To these is added evidence for the evolution of the water level, together with archaeological and historical data for calibrating the age-depth model (the draught of ships of specific periods, chronological data, level of quays etc.). In this paper, this diagram is tested against the case of Portus. It shows the evolution of the depositional context, and reconstructs the evolution of the water column of the harbour through time.

Un « modèle âge-profondeur paléoenvironnemental » pour interpréter les séquences sédimentaires en milieu portuaire (Portus, Italie)@@@A “palaeoenvironmental age-depth model” to interpret sedimentary sequences in harbour context (Portus, Italy)

The geoarchaeology of ancient harbours is based on palaeoenvironmental and palaeogeomorphological analysis and considers data issued from archaeological and historical sources. Many different kinds of evidence need to be taken into account concerning the organisation of the harbour, its chronology, and its dynamics. The “Palaeoenvironmental Age-Depth Model” (PADM) was developed in the context of a European Union (ERC Adanced Grant) funded project studying Roman ports across the Mediterranean Sea. It allows researchers to integrate all the data relevant to reconstructions of the development of harbour potential through time. The PADM is based on the analysis of one or several stratigraphic sequences with dates integrated within a classic “age-depth” model. To these is added evidence for the evolution of the water level, together with archaeological and historical data for calibrating the age-depth model (the draught of ships of specific periods, chronological data, level of quays etc.). In this paper, this diagram is tested against the case of Portus. It shows the evolution of the depositional context, and reconstructs the evolution of the water column of the harbour through time.

A “palaeoenvironmental age-depth model” to interpret sedimentary sequences in harbour context (Portus, Italy)

The geoarchaeology of ancient harbours is based on palaeoenvironmental and palaeogeomorphological analysis and considers data issued from archaeological and historical sources. Many different kinds of evidence need to be taken into account concerning the organisation of the harbour, its chronology, and its dynamics. The “Palaeoenvironmental Age-Depth Model” (PADM) was developed in the context of a European Union (ERC Adanced Grant) funded project studying Roman ports across the Mediterranean Sea. It allows researchers to integrate all the data relevant to reconstructions of the development of harbour potential through time. The PADM is based on the analysis of one or several stratigraphic sequences with dates integrated within a classic “age-depth” model. To these is added evidence for the evolution of the water level, together with archaeological and historical data for calibrating the age-depth model (the draught of ships of specific periods, chronological data, level of quays etc.). In this paper, this diagram is tested against the case of Portus. It shows the evolution of the depositional context, and reconstructs the evolution of the water column of the harbour through time.

Canal through time: towards a multidisciplinary and holistic study of water systems?

This special issue of Water History is the second of a set of two volumes dedicated to thetheme: ‘‘Canal through time: a technological answer to socio-environmental variability?’’.These two publications derive from a workshop entitled «Diverting waters» which wasorganised on the 23rd and 24th of May 2012 at the Maison de l’Orient et de laMe´diterranne´e in Lyon, France. This workshop was sponsored by the CNRS, theUniversity Lyon 2 and its Social Science Doctoral School, as well as the ANR researchfunding organisation.The workshop addressed the question of the organisation and regulation of water sys-tems in space and time. In order to provide for their food, energetic/industrial and com-mercial needs, societies have devoted major financial and human means to water diversionand channelling. Among the hydraulic structures built by communities, canals, at theinterface between nature and culture, are a rich but still weakly-explored research object.