Interest in the subject of water in the ancient Mediterranean now goes far beyond the traditional themes of hydraulic engineering, aqueducts and monumental baths. With the growing integration of archaeology and earth sciences, water is now understood in its environmental dimension. It is also seen in all its complexity, as much a resource as a danger, as much a material as a cultural object.
It is therefore somewhat surprising that Jason Lundock opens his introduction to Water in the Roman World by writing that there is a lack of ‘material focused on theories regarding water in the Roman world’ (1). On the contrary, as far as the materiality and symbolism of water are concerned, there is no shortage of papers, monographs and conference proceedings. The main problem scholars face is rather to navigate the maze of studies on the topic, whether about the iconography of water divinities, waterways or hydraulic infrastructures. It is true, however, that no strong theoretical framework has yet been developed to unify all these studies, which is probably due to the nature of the subject. Water is a theme that permeates so many aspects of life, and of ancient life for that matter, that it can be addressed from a myriad of angles and studied by almost every discipline of modern sciences and the humanities, all of them dependent on their own methods and research objects. What L. perhaps expresses is, in fact, the difficulty of clearly grasping a total social fact.
Based on this observation, the editors of the book propose to study water both in its materiality and for its cultural value in the Roman world. The contributions therefore touch upon many aspects of water management and of its cultural meaning: the strategic use of river systems in warfare, the history of sensibilities, gender and social inequalities with regard to accessing water, religion (overall the best-represented theme in the volume), even a reflection on the construction of the site of Bath (UK) as an object of historical interest. Most chapters make a great effort to integrate material and symbolic aspects.
It is indeed essential to reconnect perception and use, and the editors’ project is very welcome in that respect. However, the volume lacks a specific direction, and the papers therefore fail to answer a common question. Each contribution has its merits. The large variety of approaches (hydrology, archaeology, iconography …) is a very good thing, especially when it helps to shed different lights on a single object, but in this case the result is that the contributions are only loosely related to each other, and it is hard for the reader to discern a single thread. Nowhere is it strongly argued why sea water should be studied along with fresh water (ch. 2 and the conclusion). This would have been useful, because, while ancient philosophers and naturalists occasionally discuss the relationship between rain, rivers and the sea, the themes are generally set in different categories in modern scholarship. Some papers even fail to place water, either as a material or as a symbol, at the forefront of the discussion, focusing instead on peripheral aspects like the composition of river deposits or wider ones like the territorial organisation of Roman civitates. Martin Henig's concluding paper is very well documented, but brings little novelty to the field, nor does it open many new research avenues.
From Hydrology to Hydroarchaeology in the Ancient Mediterranean adopts a very different approach. It is narrower in scope, focusing on environmental issues of water management. It is also geographically more limited, since the contributions almost all centre on pre-Roman Sicily. It presents the results of an interdisciplinary programme on water management, developed in Aix-Marseille University (HYDRΩMED). The introduction outlines the themes the authors were asked to address: (i) strategies for the acquisition, storage and loss of water; (ii) quality of the water and its suitability for different usages; (iii) effects of seismic risks on all of these aspects. These are essential questions for understanding the nature of the relationship between water and human settlements, but also ones that can only be answered by a combination of perspectives.
The first question is considered in a wider context by different contributions, which examine how human settlements in Sicily during the Holocene were impacted not only by ancient climate and the availability of water, but also by sea-level changes, volcanism and seismicity, and the distribution of plants and animals (the first chapter offers a very extensive bibliography on all these topics). Hydrogeology proves an essential complement to archaeology in this, as it helps explain how different sites used underground or karstic resources to supplement poor rainfall. Geological, environmental and morphological information can also be used to recognise the essential elements of the system of collection and distribution of water by an aqueduct (i.e. the Greek aqueduct of Alesa). It is particularly fruitful when combined with archaeological prospections and the study of local toponymy. Studying the different characteristics of water in relation to usage shows the importance of hydrothermal springs, thermal or sulphurous. It can explain the success of a settlement, like that of Baia in the Bay of Naples, but also smaller sites in Sicily. Finally, the effect of seismic risks on water usages is a particularly stimulating theme. As has been noted since antiquity, the availability of the resource varies with time and with the movement of the Earth. In some cases, it can slightly modify the water flow. In others, it can create new risks. How these risks were dealt with is very significant for our understanding of ancient settlements. The last chapter shows that, in Delphi, a site characterised by a high seismicity and threatened by landslides, the strategy developed in Late Antiquity was to take advantage of the risks associated with water to create new opportunities for the sanctuary, notably by the creation of a thermal bath.
The book rests heavily on the methods and objects of geosciences. The title clearly indicates this approach. ‘Hydroarchaeology’ (a term that lacks a clear definition in the introduction) is understood as the study of ancient water management solutions. It is shaped by ‘hydrology’, i.e. the study of movements, distribution and management of water more generally. The vocabulary and technical nature of earth sciences are often daunting for scholars coming from the humanities, a difficulty that the book seems to acknowledge by a real effort for clarity in the contributions. However, as is often the case in this type of publication, it may be hard for classical historians to identify clearly how they can reinvest some of the results presented here in their own research. The use of different time scales in geosciences (millennium to century) and in history (century to decade or year) often represents a particular obstacle.
Water is undeniably a topic that benefits from a manifold approach, but this approach is fraught with difficulties related to the increasing specialisation of each field. To produce useful results, it is necessary for specific questions to be asked, otherwise the risk is to get lost in the vastness of the theme.
