Panel 3.19 – The role of water in production processes in Antiquity

Organiser/Chair:

• Elena H. Sánchez López (Universidad de Granada)

Speakers:

• Elena H. Sánchez López (Universidad de Granada)
  Not only clay. The role of water throughout the pottery making process
• Davide Gangale Risoleo (University of Pisa)
  Water for the villas: water distribution for production processes
• Javier Martínez Jiménez (University of Cambridge)
  Water and building in Late Antiquity
• Beth Munro (University of London)
  Water use in metal and glass recycling workshops in late antiquity

"Water is a precious natural resource (...). It has a wide range of applications in our daily life and it is a driver for economic prosperity. Water can be used for energy production and it is necessary for the development of industrial and agricultural activities" (Water JPI SRIA H2020).

Water has been highlighted as a precious natural resource and an essential element for live. Archaeological, historical and anthropological studies have analysed the water supply systems in different periods and regions. But, by contrast, very few has been said about the uses given to this water, apart from baths or fountains display in Roman times.

However, we may draw attention to the fact that water is fundamental for the economic prosperity of any society, as it is vital in the development of many economic activities, both now and in the past. The objective of the panel about "The role of water in production processes in Antiquity" will be to analyse the use of water in productive activities from Iron Age to Late Antiquity.

The purpose is to analyse the use of water in craft and production activities, and the archaeological evidences related to the water management across the Mediterranean Region. Within those consuming water activities might be highlighted for example different building activities, food production, pottery making, metallurgy, mining or textile manufacture. In those productive activities, water was sometimes one of the elements used in the making process, in others cases it was used for the cleansing of raw material or facilities, but it could also be the water-power what was used.

In summary, water management studies can (an might) go further than just analyse the water supply and distribution systems (wells, cisterns, and aqueducts, later on). It is essential that we ask (ourselves or the archaeological record) which was the use given to the water. In this case, the panel will focus on one of the less highlighted uses: those related to the production processes.

1. Elena H. Sánchez López (Universidad de Granada) / Juan Jesús Padilla Fernández (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

Not only clay. The role of water throughout the pottery making process
In most cases the studies about pottery workshops in Antiquity, only analyse two elements: one of the activities in the production processes, the firing of the wares, thoroughly studying the kilns, and the results of the production processes, the pottery itself.
So, only in very few cases other structures or activities within a potter’s workshop and the pottery production process are really taken into account. But three elements are essential in the pottery production process: apart from the clay, vegetable combustible and water were also essential. It is true that in many cases, those two other raw materials and their uses are difficult to identify in the archaeological record. But, especially in the case of the water supply or water management, the presence of water channels, vats or cisterns, is frequently noted, even if the structures remain un-described, as a result of a lack of interest toward them.
This paper will analyse the pottery production process, identifying water consuming activities, and studying their archaeological evidences. Furthermore it will propose a first approximation to the real water needs of a potter’s workshop in Antiquity.

2. Davide Gangale Risoleo (University of Pisa)

Water for the villas: water distribution for production processes
The contemporary archaeological debate frequently discussed the presence of water in Roman villas, mainly focusing the alternative between decorative and functional aims. The past researches have deepened the decorative and functional value of water in a residential building, trying to study the water as a luxury element - highlighted with pools and fountains - or as an enhancing economic tool. However, the point is: how can we architecturally and structurally decline the functionality of water in a villa? Furthermore, is it possible to identify technological differentials in water supply in relation to the productive process? Sometimes, water supply was secured by connecting it to a central system, like a city aqueduct, supplying the villas along its way in the suburban area. However, this was not the only possible solution. In fact, there are also villas, securing their own water supply through private aqueducts, built, by public concession, for the exclusive use of a villa or a group of them. These particular cases seem to conceal a meaning that goes beyond the display of wealth and glamour. A new construction of an aqueduct was a huge expense, higher than connecting to an existing public network. Therefore, could we interpret this effort as the need of particular productive processes? Finally, is the huge expense for the construction of a private aqueduct justified by the gains that would have generated a certain agricultural or handicraft production?

3. Javier Martínez Jiménez (University of Cambridge)

Water and building in Late Antiquity
The role of water in building projects is usually underestimated when simply not taken into account. Mortar, lime, bricks and plaster all need water in quantity, not only in their production but also when used in a building site. In this paper I want to address how water was used, and where was it obtained, in buiilding projects in late Antiquity, underlining the role of continuing functional aqueducts in the enabling of large construction projects in the late antique West.

4. Beth Munro (University of London)

Water use in metal and glass recycling workshops in late antiquity
In the 4th to 8th centuries CE, the recycling of glass and metal objects in makeshift production spaces was done widely throughout cities and villas of the former Roman Empire. These recycling workshops, as spaces specifically devoted to the reprocessing of disused metal and glass objects, were often located in abandoned rooms in public and private, often high status, Roman buildings. The workshops are detected archaeologically because of the remains of metal or glass working ovens, or by the presence of material waste, slag, or sometimes finished products left behind. Notably, these production spaces are often located near water sources – in or near fountains, latrines, public and private baths, or dining rooms with water features. In part, the workshops may have been located here because these spaces contained the highest quantities of iron, lead, bronze, and glass features to recycle. But it is often overlooked that these spaces may have still contained or had access to water, which would have been essential to these workshops, and the technology of reprocessing these materials. This paper will examine the location of water sources, channels, drains, and water storage vessels in relation to recycling workshops and look at whether the proximity of such features can help us understand in greater detail the production technology and workforce organisation for glass and metal recycling operations in late antiquity.