Architectural Expression of Public and Private Water Supply at Morgantina, Corinth, Athens, and Delos

Water in ancient Greek cities can be considered under several rubrics— aesthetic enrichment of urban spaces, ornamentation of enclosed precincts, nuisance or danger in the form of flood or excessive storm runoff, domestic amenity, public ritual and spectacle, to name a few. This chapter focuses on public fountains, which were both amenity and necessity, contrasting them with the more humble domestic arrangements of the same cities. The appearance, function, and location of fountains cannot be understood as merely visual matters, even though the form and ornamentation of fountains made significant architectural and aesthetic contributions to the cityscape. Rather, understanding the local geology and climate and the principles of hydraulic engineering makes possible a new and clearer understanding of this architectural type. The technological and geological basis of water supply is of equal weight in urban development with the formal presentation of water as an urban amenity. Water management in ancient Greek cities expressed in its physical forms both the simplicity and the sophistication of their hydraulic technology. The physical arrangements were expressed in the same vocabulary of the Greek orders and decorative details that were used for other buildings and fittings, and in the same range of local and imported materials. Placement of the water system elements not only facilitated their use but also indicated the high value placed on water and on its use. The dangers of too much water or not enough were not only solved by Greek technological tradition but also expressed in the physical forms given to the individual parts and to the water system as a whole. Each of the water elements I have studied is simple, fulfilling its function economically, yet each is sophisticated enough that modern day practice is just beginning to catch up with these crafty ancients. For instance, having both the flowing water of fountains and wells, and the stored rainwater of cisterns, meant that the water supply of a Greek city was diversified for greater safety in time of war or shortage, and for ecological soundness. In the late twentieth century we are just beginning to understand the utility of redundancy.

Note on Testing the Water from the Asklepion Area, Athens

These tests were performed at the Technical University of Athens, Department of Water Resources, by Assistant Professor Alexandra Katsiri during November-December 1988. The problem she was asked to investigate was in what ways these waters differed from ordinary drinking water in Athens. (I am extremely grateful to her for this gracious assistance.) The waters were gathered from three separate sites in and near the Asklepieion on the south slope of the Acropolis, Athens (Fig. 18.5). Specifically, they are: A. Sacred Spring in Asklepion B. Archaic shaft immediately west of Asklepion C. Byzantine cistern immediately adjacent to B, to the west Table 19.1 gives a detailed analysis of the water samples. The fact that the figures from the three sources differ significantly indicates that the three places derive their water from different channels within the Acropolis. Thus the belief of the workmen on the site that these are different waters has been verified.

The Well-Watered Acropolis at Athens

Persons with some knowledge of the Athenian acropolis are likely to be aware of the very early Mycenaean spring in the north-northwest quadrant, and of the still flowing Klepsydra Spring at the northwest corner, as well as remember stories about Poseidon’s salt spring adjacent to the Erechtheum. Yet to connect the presence of water on the Acropolis with the urban history of Athens has not been explicitly done to date, even though the Acropolis has been the focus of settlement from earliest times until today. It is the purpose of this section to set out what is known about water utilization at the Athenian Acropolis, thereby suggesting firm ecological reasons why settlement should have taken place on and near the Acropolis (Fig. 18.1). Travlos’ map series of the city of Athens (1960) centered on the Acropolis show us that this hill has always been the focus of settlement, a fact well known to the ancient Athenians themselves (Thucydides, 2:15.3– 6). I suggest that not only the defensive capabilities of the Acropolis but specifically its water supply made it the logical choice of location for groups who intended to live securely and to dominate the region. The number and diversity of water sources here is impressive. In each era it has been necessary to cope with the water that occurred naturally and to save for later use the rain and spring waters that drew settlers to this rocky outcropping. Let us note the locations of water on the Acropolis at several levels, with references to published accounts of some of the features and descriptions (based on surface reconnaissance and discussion with experts) of those for which I have not been able to find such accounts. Discussion of the geology of the Acropolis will be found with the paragraphs about the salt spring. After this topographical discussion, we will look briefly at the chronology of water on the Acropolis, followed by a concluding discussion of urban history. Immediately to the left of the Propylaea, inside the Acropolis wall, are rectangular cisterns dug into the rock of the surface, with rock-cut drainage channels leading to them from the central pathway.

Early and Late Examples: A New Look at Olynthos and Pompeii

The arrangements made in ancient cities for the management and use of water varied over the extent of the Greek world, depending on local topography and geology. They also varied by time period. In the absence of detailed whole-site studies, we can no more than suggest some of those differences. Our method will be to examine one early city and one late, looking for similarities and differences. The chosen examples share the useful (for us) feature of having been destroyed, so that their ruins preserve a set of arrangements not diluted by later habitation. The examples chosen are Olynthos in northeast Greece, destroyed at the end of the fourth century B.C., and Pompeii near Naples in southern Italy, destroyed in A.D. 79. A description of each will point out features that are typical for that time period, and we will conclude with a direct comparison of the two water management systems. Olynthos (Fig. 13.1) is located in northeastern Greece, at the base of the left peninsula of the set of three which also includes Mount Athos. Geological maps of the area (Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration, “Geology of Greece” series (1:50,000), Athens, Greece, ca. 1984) show that a large limestone massif terminates just to the north of the site, and could be tapped for its karst waters. Indeed, a pipeline was found coming southward for five miles (D.M. Robinson, 1935, 219 ff and fig. 12; Robinson and Clement, 1938), from the springs near Polygyros and from northeast of the church of Hagios Nicolas. More traces of the line were observed in the plain. In Volume II of the Olynthos excavation reports (Robinson, 1930, 12), the line is thought to be sixth century because of some fragments of black-figure vases found with it in the dig, yet in Volume XII this aqueduct was declared fifth or fourth century because of its beautifully cemented joints with mortar of pure lime with a little silica (Robinson, 1946, 107). The line is described as having pipes about 3 inches thick (.45 centimeters), and therefore is probably a pressure pipe.

Urban Location Determinants: Argos, Gela, and Pergamon

A city is the locus of both sociocultural and physical-technical elements in a society. To begin to understand the importance of both kinds of factors, ancient cities are convenient examples to study, especially dead ones that do not “wiggle” under the microscope. By isolating one urban system (water management) we can begin to understand the complication and variability that characterize these early cities, and hence gain insight into the development of other urban systems, as well as the role that water management plays in the evolution of all cities. The received wisdom about the placement of cities usually rates defense as the primary factor, with access to arable land and concentration of trade activities being the other two important factors. A hill top, a protruding ridge, a peninsula or an isthmus between two rivers—all were sites easily defended by walls and hand weapons. Even a broad plain could be utilized if there were a slight rise that could be fortified, such as at the Mycenaean city of Tiryns in Greece. A city on a slight rise in the midst of broad fields of arable and irrigable soil was ideal. Such a formulation leaves out the possibility of deliberately choosing as a site a port city that tapped directly into grazing lands, or the importance of a balance of either fish or meat complementing cereals in the diet. It is more accurate to say that two kinds of food were necessary, either crops and fish or crops and meat. This concept broadens the number and kinds of “ideal” sites. Trade routes, the third factor, also are more complex in form and have more varied effects on urban location than early theories would admit. There are at least three kinds: 1. Overland routes (e.g., the Santa Fe Trail, with its two terminals at Independence, Mo., and Santa Fe., N.M., with Santa Fe being a crossroads where routes from Los Angeles and Mexico City also converged) 2. Land and water interchanges (the north-south land route through France crossing at Paris the east-west river route along the Seine) 3. Water-water interchanges such as New Orleans (Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi River) or Amsterdam (Rhine River and Atlantic Ocean)

Greek Settlements and Karst Phenomena: Corinth and Syracuse

To get a sense of the relationship between karst geology and Greek settlement, we will look at examples from the Greek mainland, the islands of the Aegean, and Sicily. There is no attempt here to be comprehensive, as the necessary field work has not been done to make that possible, but rather these examples are selected to suggest the way that karst water potential played an important role in site selection and development. The major examples selected are Athens and Corinth for mainland Greece, Rhodes for the Aegean Islands, Assos and Priene for Ionia, and Syracuse and Akragas for Sicily. Other places will be cited briefly if the details from those sites are particularly illuminating. Karst phenomena, as we have seen, are found throughout the Greek world. Since Athens is perhaps the best documented Greek city, and has in addition a phenomenal karst system as its monumental focus, it receives here a section of its own, Chapter 18, The Well-Watered Acropolis. In Chapter 11, Planning Water Management, we discuss Corinth’s water system in comparison with that of her daughter city Syracuse. Here, however, we will consider the aspects of water at Corinth that derive from the karst geology of the area. This city is an excellent example of the adaptation of urban requirements to karst terrane, the siting of an ancient Greek city to take advantage of this natural resource. Ancient Corinth was built on gradually sloping terraces below the isolated protuberance of Acrocorinth, which acts as a reservoir, with the flow of waters through it resulting in springs (Fig. 8.1). That karst waters are to be found in perched nappes even at high altitudes accounts for the spring of Upper Peirene not far below the summit of Acrocorinth, as well as the two fountains half-way down the road from its citadel, and the fountain called Hadji Mustapha, at the immediate foot of the citadel (as reported by the late seventeenth century traveler, E. Celebi, cited in Mackay, 1967, 193–95.) The aquifers also supply the aqueduct (probably ancient) from Penteskouphia southwest of Acrocorinth.

Urban Patterns in the Greek Period: Athens, Paestum, Morgantina, Miletus/Priene, and Pergamon as Formal Types

In order to assess the impact of the delivery and drainage of water on the urban pattern in the ancient Greek world, it is necessary to have clear ideas of what forms their cities took. Thus a brief discussion of urban patterns will be useful. Traditional descriptions of ancient Greek cities characterize them by typical street patterns, usually two major types: the Hippodamean grid of Miletus of the fifth century, and the terraces like the blades of a fan found at Pergamon of the late third and second centuries, called “scenographic urbanism.” Yet a more careful examination of the evidence suggests that for different centuries B.C., there are many more urban types than two. Examples standing for both the repertory of physical patterns and the changes in those patterns over time that we may cite are: 1. 7th century B.C.—Akragas (frontispiece): irregular hill-top site of the archaic period 2. 6th century—Paestum (Fig. 5.IB): “bar and stripes” 3. 5th century—Athens (Fig. 5.1A): organic, focused on central acropolis and agora, similar to Akragas pattern 4. 5th century—Morgantina (Fig. 5.1C): typical West Greek pattern of two flat hills with residential quarters grid platted and lower agora between them 5. 4th and 3rd centuries—Priene (Fig. 51.D): based on prototype grid at Miletus (early 5th century—Fig. 22.4) and refinement of grid as used at Rhodes (mid to late 5th century—Fig. 8.3), an adaption of Hippodamean regularity to a small plateau 6. 3rd and 2nd centuries—Pergamon (Fig. 5.1E): scenographic urbanism, with wedge-shaped terraces It is difficult to classify urban plans solely by pattern or by century. This is because the changes did not go together in any simple fashion. Inspection of the street patterns of ancient Greek cities, and the relation of those patterns to the sites, allows them to be classified into five basic types, which for easy remembrance I name after representative cities of each type: 1. Athens-type. A general rule for cities of a[n ancient] culture states that “the capital city is unlike the others in form.” Athens, a seemingly formless, organic city, is quite unlike the well-regulated cities (many of them colonies) of the other types.

Profile of Individual Water User

One way to show our understanding of ancient Greek management of water is to follow an ordinary person in her daily patterns, observing when and how she uses water. This schedule ignores differences that derive from local geology, climate, or customs, but rather tries to set out the common patterns. 1. At daylight. Wake up. Go to room or alcove set aside for excreting and do that. Rinse with previously used water. Then go to courtyard, pull up bucket of water from cistern, pour into louter, and wash face and hands. Save water for re-use (Fig. 13.3). 2. First meal. Fix breakfast, using water from cistern for any cooking. Water donkey, dog, house plants, with water from cistern or re-usable water from cooking or bathing. 3. Work. Morning and mid-afternoon to late day: A. Do family laundry—use giant pithos or scrub-board at edge of courtyard, filled from downspout from roof or with buckets of water from the cistern; hang clothes to dry on poles or rope strung between posts (columns) supporting roofs around courtyard. Alternate: laundry might be done communally at a large tank that received the overflow from a fountain near the agora, and the wet clothes carried home and spread out to dry, as above (Fig. 17.5). B. Or do craft activity such as making pottery, using courtyard and water from cistern. C. Or go out to farm. Excrement and garbage were probably carried daily to the farm for fertilizer. An important farming task was to monitor the irrigation of timber lots, fields, orchards, and vineyards with waste water from the town or with spring or river water or dispersed rainwater. D. Or do shopping and/or selling. Periodically carry craft items to Agora to sell them. If need be, rinse items such as vases in public fountains to show off their best colors. In Athens, women participated in the markets, selling lettuce and other farm or craft products, but in some Greek cities shopping and selling were solely masculine activities. 4. Recreation. A. Talk with cousin from the country who waters his donkey at the public trough in the Agora. B. On the way home stop at neighborhood fountain to chat with other people fetching water to drink (Fig. 21.1). C. On special occasions (marriage, birth) go to a sanctuary for a ritual bath. (Fig. 6.1).

Morgantina's Agora—Design and Drains

The agora fulfilled a complex role in the life of Greek cities. In Greek agoras, nearly the whole range of public activities was accommodated: governmental, religious, commercial, military, and social. The market function of the agora was essential to the survival of the city, with the availabilty of everything from imported grain to locally grown lettuce. Services, from haircutting to the teaching of Stoic philosophy, were available. Government offices and officers were readily at hand. Temples, shrines, and monuments to heroes iterated religious, cultural, and moral values from every corner. The agora at Athens is probably the most thoroughly studied of the early ones. In shape it is an irregular quadrilateral, eventually monumentalized with stoas and other public buildings along all four sides. The buildings were placed at the edges of the large open space which therefore was available for many activities. Cisterns and wells of the pre- and postclassical periods were scattered over the surface. Only one well is known, however, from the classical period, that in the shrine in the northwest corner (Athenian Agora Guide,3) suggesting that the sixth century aqueduct was supplying enough water for the population during the fifth and early fourth centuries. Fountains marked important points of entry, and drains led the excess water northwestward toward the city gates (Figs. 16.15, 17.11). As the agora changed over time, being filled in with additional structures, the sources of water and the drains were continually adapted to the new demands. The organic form at Athens contrasts with the more regular but even earlier surviving form—eighth or seventh century B.C.—at Posidonia (Paestum), where a broad strip of public space for temples and agora was set aside at the center of the town (Fig. 5.1B). On this flat site, two sacred precincts flanked the agora (later Forum). The long and varied history of the site precludes our easy understanding of the design of the Greek agora here. Regularity at Posidonia is a function of its status as a colonial city—a city that was planned and laid out all at one time. Careful attention was given to the provision and use of water.

Natural Models for Water Elements

The Greek builders developed their control over water by careful observation coupled with trial and error, to determine where there would be ample water supply. They could amass the same kind of knowledge as modern engineers, although on a different (nonmathematical) basis. They were adept at utilizing observation but not at complicated technical manipulation of data, at least partly because of the defects in their mathematical system. They also were adept at utilizing discoveries made by their neighbors, such as the qanats of Persia. Unfortunately we do not know how much of the highly developed Mycenaean and Minoan water technology survived the “Dark Ages” of the first third of the first millennium B.C. The features of a karst landscape that tell modern engineers where to drill would have spoken equally strongly to their predecessors: 1. In limestone gaps between vertical or steeply dipping aquicludes (strata that hold water but do not transmit it) 2. In open faults or at fault intersections, especially in younger faults not resealed by precipitated calcite 3. At the noses of limestone spurs jutting into alluvium, places that are often the location of springs, but even if no spring is visible, one can find water at depth 4. On the peak of an anticline where tension opens the aquifer (cf. artesian wells) 5. Below surface drainage—especially in places with large solution openings (FAO, Vols. 4 and 5, pt. 1, p. 24) Thus, inspection of the karst terrane would have enabled the ancient water specialists to find and utilize springs, and also to know where to dig for wells. Such knowledge contributed directly to the success of ancient Greek cities. Inspection of and meditation on the natural environment over many centuries gave the Greeks the necessary models to develop highly sophisticated water systems. In what follows I am speculating, but in no case do these suggestions go beyond what would be possible given both time, intelligence, and necessity. In the case of either dolines/sinkholes or the kind of shaft that grows gradually upward, the lower end of the shaft is always or seasonally filled with water (see Fig. 7.3).