Waterscapes and water supply
The impact of climate change on water is one of the greatest challenges facing human communities across the planet. Whether it is melting icecaps leading to rising water levels along coastlines that threaten many major cities, abnormally high rainfall leading to devastating floods of settled landscapes or significantly reduced rainfall causing droughts and subsequently famines, few places on earth remain untouched. As has been observed in the past in different regions and cultures, water is always at the centre of human life. A few books were chosen in this New Book Chronicle to highlight past relationships between humans and water including: settlement sites on the watery edge in Britain; water supplies that sustained ancient Greece and the Maya world; and the luxury use of water in Roman bathhouses in the north of the empire. The hope is that the approaches and debates outlined in these studies may lead to deeper understanding and appreciation of the human connection to water and will, ideally, assist in finding solutions to some of the future challenges.
The Fenlands in East Anglia were shaped by water. There were abundant rivers and tidal estuaries in the area before people initiated large-scale draining. As the book's title Waterlands suggests, this landscape was once a waterscape and it is in this context that human activity from Neolithic to Early Iron Age times is explored. The three main authors and many specialists report on the finds of the excavations prior to the extension of the Pode Hole Quarry at Bar Pasture Farm at Thorney, Peterborough, which were undertaken between 2006 and 2017. Surveys, large-scale excavations, sample trenches and environmental sampling took place across an area of 55ha.
Chapter 1 explains the background of the investigation and the methodology and strategy applied, which doubtless needed to be thoroughly thought through given the size of the project. The spatial and chronological context of the site is briefly laid out in Chapter 2. The largest chapter of the book is dedicated to the excavations and it presents the most important features in their chronological order. Only a handful of finds point to brief human activity dating to the Mesolithic. A waterhole complex with pits is the first sign of longer, albeit not continuous, occupation and dates to the Early Neolithic period; it was sporadically re-used during the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age. In the latter period, four burial barrows were built which belong to a larger group of barrows placed along the fen edge. The Middle Bronze Age saw a transformation of the whole area as about 80 large- and small-field systems were created and developed with connecting droveways in and around them during these centuries. An enclosed farmstead with two roundhouses located between the fields and seven more roundhouses across the site are evidence for a longer-term settlement. The earlier barrow field remained intact during this reorganisation and contemporary cremation burials are placed within them, which can be interpreted as an ancestral connection. The scale of human occupation dwindles during the Late Bronze Age and the area seems almost abandoned by the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age. This is most likely due to the changing climate and marine incursions into the fenlands which led to the relocation of the settlements to drier areas. During the Early La Tène Iron Age there seems to be a small increase in activity on the slightly higher grounds in the western fringes of the investigated area and, among other finds, a smithy complex in a square enclosure was unearthed. The smithy was used for around 130 years before it was abandoned and the landscape of Bar Pasture was reclaimed by the fenland marshes, until drainage works started to dry out the lands from the sixteenth century onwards.
Relatively few artefacts were found during these excavations but due to their large scale they yielded a significant amount of ceramics, some flints, metalworking debris as well as burial places with human remains. The prehistoric ceramics are presented in detail and have aided some of the dating of the structures. Metalworking debris supports the structural finds of the Iron Age smithy, with iron smithing and copper-alloy working giving insights into the workshop set up. The palaeoenvironmental analyses are based mainly on plant remains and only a few wood remains were discovered. This is because the site is at the fen edge and, due to quarry work and drainage, only deeper-cut features with waterlogged conditions will preserve prehistoric wood. The analyses of the animal bones showed the dominance of domestic animals, but wild species were present especially in the early phases; cattle were the most common animals found, followed by goat/sheep and then pigs. Human bones from two inhumations from Early Bronze Age barrows and 17 cremation burials dating from Early to Late Bronze Age were studied and compared within the regional burial practices.
The final chapter combines all results and evidence and delivers a synthesis of the site's past. It reveals an image of active human interventions, especially during the Middle Bronze Age, and life at the water's edge, which is not to be understood as a marginal setting but more as the way of life in a wetland landscape. The authors deliver a complex and large site report in a well-written, concise but detailed way. This is not an easy task. They are able to put their findings into the larger context of contemporaneous fenland sites to further our understanding of the people who lived in these waterlands.
Shelagh Norton's book on Assessing Iron Age marsh-forts is based on her PhD thesis, finished in 2019, and traces evidence of a lesser-known group of monuments, the so-called marsh-forts. In Iron Age studies, hillforts are researched widely because more than 4000 are known in Britain. They have become an iconic feature in the landscape as they were markers of visual dominance in their own time and have subsequently shaped our view on Iron Age societies. The marsh-forts have similar fortification structures to the hillforts but in a low-lying wetland setting that is relatively invisible today. Only one site has been studied in detail to date: Sutton Common, near Doncaster. This scholarly neglect needs addressing and Norton's research sets out to gather information on similar monuments and offers insights into how to find and best research such (for the time being) unusual monuments.
The assessment is split between a literature review centring on the Sutton Common example and its characteristics, to identify further sites in surveys and excavation reports, and a visual survey of the landscape including aerial images across England and Wales. Through this process, many more potential marsh-forts become visible and are briefly presented on a national and then regional level leading to a discussion of the landscape context of these sites. The author suggests groupings based on different criteria of marsh-forts. Group 1 is based on Sutton Common with mainly ritual usage; group 2 comprises potential marsh-forts that may have been used for non-domestic and more ritual purposes; group 3 encompasses those with mainly domestic use but with monumental structures that occupied a central role in the landscape and may have had a controlling function similar to the hillforts; and group 4, which represents half of the dataset, and are examples that have inconclusive or insufficient similarities to allow a classification.
The focus turns then to the regional scale of the North Shropshire marsh-forts and zooms in on the 8ha large site of the Berth, with two enclosures connected across marshy ground. The detailed case study of this site is at the heart of this research and highlights how to identify and study successfully such a marsh-fort, incorporating palaeoenvironmental approaches to reconstruct the original surroundings and settings in the waterscape.
The concluding chapter compares the two outstanding examples of marsh-forts, Sutton Common and the Berth, which are similar in some respects, and connects them with the further potential evidence of marsh-forts. It discusses the role and significance of these sites as possible ritual architecture and/or centres for controlling economic factors or community gatherings. Taken together, the evidence of occupation for both sites can be rather complex and covers a long timespan. Sutton Common may be a less-common example in having mainly a ritual purpose, whereas the Berth and further potential marsh-forts show more domestic uses and seem to occupy a central role in the surrounding network of settlements.
Norton has delivered a solid study on an elusive subject and succeeds in putting forward a convincing framework for studying marsh-forts in the future as a more common site type and, in some cases, important centres in hillfort-dominated landscapes. Their position in their waterscapes is both deliberate and meaningful. Adopting these proposals for marsh-forts will certainly have an impact on the perception of, and stimulate fresh input into, future research in the British Iron Age.
This recent summer saw another round of heatwaves and wildfires in many areas around the Mediterranean including Greece. The supply of freshwater and its sustainability has become a critical topic, as it most likely was in ancient times. The volume reviewed here is the outcome of an international workshop held in 2017 by the Swedish Institute at Athens. It is a collection of eight contributions plus an Introduction and Epilogue chapter all concerning the water supply in ancient Greece, with an emphasis on wells and cisterns.
These two types of structural water supply have been often overlooked. The Introduction, by the editor of the volume Patrick Klingenberg, highlights their importance and delivers definitions for each as well as an overview of the contributions. The prevailing research on fountains and aqueducts obscures the fact that wells and cisterns were very common in ancient Greece, were widely used by many people and were important for the supply of freshwater. The gathered contributions try to shift the focus and therefore enable new ways of thinking that question the supply of, and control over, water in the region.
An exact definition of ‘cistern’ and ‘well’ is needed because descriptions of these and other installations, such as reservoirs and fountains, are often used interchangeably and thus hinder a more conclusive study. The definition is simplified in this review: a ‘cistern’ is built storage of (rain)water below or over ground, without a constant water flow in or out (which would be a reservoir); and a ‘well’ is dug into the ground, mainly as a shaft, to reach the water table and is constantly supplied with water. The archaeology of wells and cisterns was originally mainly concerned with what was found in them, and the trend to look at their water-supply function in the settlement sites has only been applied in the past few decades.
The first contribution by Martin Finné and Inga Labuhn discusses the climate in ancient Greece (c. 700 BC–AD 300) and delivers a picture of the hydro-climate of the Aegean, with a specific view on the freshwater availability. The next four chapters explore the archaeological evidence. First Yannis Lolos compares the system of wells and cisterns in the ancient cities of Corinth and Sikyon. This is followed by Pavlos Karvoni who investigates the remains of wells and cisterns in private houses in ancient Delos. The water supply of the Keramaikos site in Athens is thoroughly studied by Jutta Stroszeck whose chapter focuses on the cisterns. The water supply of major sanctuaries is the topic of two contributions: Stephanie Kimmey studies the wells in the Zeus temple in Nemea; and Johanna Fuchs explores how the supply system can be understood in the Heraion on Samos through recent excavations. Patrick Klingenberg concludes this part of the book with a review of the written evidence in ancient sources. An additional chapter on the use of wells and cisterns in modern Greece is delivered by Hamish Forbes. The Epilogue by Dylan Rogers is concerned with the social aspects of water distribution and its meaning for daily life in ancient Greece.
The availability of freshwater is fundamental to human life and often at its social centre, as shown especially in the book's final chapter. This well-put-together volume delivers a much-needed emphasis on the installations of the important and commonly used wells and cisterns in order to gain a deeper understanding of the system of water supplies.
Harnessing the power of water for wellbeing is a task in which Roman architects excelled, especially in their development of bathhouses. The famous baths of Caracalla in Rome spring to mind, not even surpassed in size and splendour by many modern spa ‘health temples’. Sadi Marechal investigates the humbler but also important examples at the edge of the Roman Empire.
The book is the outcome of a postdoctoral research project at the Department of Archaeology at Ghent University that set out to record and research the corpus of Roman baths in the peripheral region of north-western continental Europe (Belgium, the Netherlands, northern France and western Germany). This subject has not been studied a great deal so far and the author's research combines old publications with modern excavation reports, many sourced from grey literature. The Roman baths are more than an architectural feature and reveal a certain view on health and the human body. Hence their appearance and adaptation, in regions far from the Roman patria, can be studied as a marker of the socio-cultural interactions between Romans and indigenous people and in the context of adopting a Roman way of life.
An Introduction on bathhouses highlights their emergence and spread across Europe and discusses motives for the popularity of bathing as well as the differences between public and private baths. The history of research and up-to-date studies of bathhouses in north-west Europe are brought together in the second chapter. The next chapter looks at the spread and the distinctions of the more common private and the few public bathhouses in the three civitas of Tungorum, Nerviorum and Meniaporum (the Roman administrational units in the research area). Arguments for the different characteristics are emphasised in the following chapter on the architectural typology of the baths. The next chapters give detailed information on the technology of how to operate a Roman bath and the decorative and building materials used. Both the technology and materials in the baths are, in general, comparable with examples from all over the empire. The chapter ‘Bathing and society’ draws on the previous discussions and incorporates the baths into a wider socio-cultural overview. This explores how the baths can be understood within the context of the changing relationship between the incoming Romans and their traditions and views on health and a ‘civilised way of life’ and the local population.
A short conclusion sums up the chapters. In terms of architecture, both public and private baths are of modest size (100–500m2) with simple designs of usually rectangular rooms. A minor difference compared with bathhouses around the empire seems to be that more warm or hot rooms were present, which is understandable in the colder climate of the north. The few public baths are all in main centres; in the surrounding areas (one day's ride of these centres), the villas were less often equipped with private baths. It can be presumed that the villa owners did not invest in such luxury because they could meet in the public bathhouses for socialising and business. The many private baths are often in villas far from urban centres but near important roads. In those cases, the baths are seen as both a piece of ‘home comfort’ and a way to express prestige to neighbouring elites, especially as any negotiations would have been conducted in the private villa and not in the more distant public urban centre. This means that the local population will have had only limited access to the bathhouses which were controlled by the Roman elite.
The main research base of the project is presented in the extensive catalogue at the end of the book, where the large sample of 145 bathhouse sites is gathered. The book is well written and engaging. The presentation is well thought through, and the concise but consistent information and clear plans make it easy to access, compare and study the material.
It succeeds in delivering a thorough material study and combines this within a deeper investigation of Roman society in a far corner of the empire.
This volume is a compilation of essays investigating the connections between water-supply management and sustainability from varied perspectives. It incorporates different approaches with the main focus on the Maya world.
A short Introduction by the editors, Jean Larmon, Lisa Lucero and Fred Valdez, sets the outline for the book and highlights the close connection between sustainability, water management and climate change. The publication aims to include many political and environmental questions in the discussions in order to make ‘what can be learned from the past’ more accessible and thought-provoking and thus help to manage the current challenges of climate change.
Seven chapters are concerned with the world of the Maya and investigating water management and agricultural systems, the social meaning and value of water and its political consequences. For example, Chapter 2 ‘Harvesting Ha’ by Nicholas Dunning et al. is a detailed and enlightening overview on the various ways water was captured and stored in different-sized tanks in the Elevated Interior Region of the Maya lowlands, a rugged karst landscape. In the discussions, the authors turn to modern climate problems in the region and hope that their investigations show how the Maya water-storage approach was a successful and sustainable way to stabilise water supply and could be used today. Chapter 5, on the other hand, looks at natural water systems such as rivers and how they were incorporated into water supply and trade. Joel Gunn weaves a compelling narrative of the emergence of Maya society and urbanism through his three themes of watery origins, tropical footprints and watery cities.
A comparable but geographically and culturally distinct case study is delivered in a chapter on water management in Angkor, while a chapter on modern water management and small-scale irrigation systems in New Mexico gives a temporal comparison. The final chapter is a critical observation by Christian Isendahl on the use of the term ‘sustainability’ both in the book and in other archaeological studies. He suggests that a refined definition of sustainability is needed in order to gain meaningful insights into human behaviour especially those concerning ‘landscape legacies’.
Readers with an interest in the Maya and/or water management systems will find the book valuable and the well-presented case studies informative. The sometimes overly theoretical approach seeking to connect water supply with sustainability is not always very clearly expressed. A simpler language and writing style would have made this important and complex topic far more accessible to a wider audience.
The contributions provide a valuable insight into water management and sustainable supply as well as explaining how water shapes societal structures. They also highlight which systems were ultimately sustainable and which were not, and identify the underlying factors involved. Water is therefore not only for sustaining life but also an economic and political resource that could be controlled and used to gain power. The deep and spiritual connection between water and the Maya is a recurring theme: ‘water is life’. There is also a lesson that in today's world we should treasure and value water far more than we do.
This list includes all books received between 1 May 2023 and 30 June 2023. Those featuring at the beginning of New Book Chronicle, however, have not been duplicated in this list. The listing of a book in this chronicle does not preclude its subsequent review in Antiquity.
