H2020Индивидуална стипендия2021–2023

AQUEA · Ancient aqueduct carbonate deposits as a high-resolution archive for the environment and archaeology

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2021-10-11 → 2023-10-10
Финансиране от ЕС: 212 934 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Валните отложения от калциев карбонат в римските акведукти се анализират за данни за климата, като например промени в температурата и валежите. Тези архиви помагат да се разбере миналотото състояние на водните ресурси, за да се планира бъдещото им управление.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Ancient aqueduct carbonate deposits as a high-resolution archive for the environment and archaeology

The Roman Empire was the first modern world, a multicultural amalgamation of nations, with highly developed economy and technology. One of the outstanding achievements of Roman culture was the development of aqueducts, elaborate systems to deliver fresh water to urban centres. The aqueducts are important for two reasons; they are the cultural and technological expression of a society that is our direct ancestor, with similarities and differences, and a study of aqueducts reveals much about this ancient society. Also, aqueducts transported water, one of our most precious resources, and can provide a benchmark on availability of water in the past. Modern water supply systems still use the same sources that the Roman engineers used, and an understanding of the state of groundwater and springs in antiquity is important to determine the future of the water reserves and supplies on which we will have to rely on in future. Ruins of ancient aqueducts can reveal much about their construction and functioning, but not about the way they were operated, and about the kind and amount of water flowing through them. However, many aqueducts deposited calcium carbonate sediments which can provide such information. Calcium carbonate deposited in Roman aqueducts is a new, high-resolution archive for environmental and archaeological studies. Aqueduct carbonate stores information on short- and long-term variations in temperature, rainfall, vegetation cover and traces of earthquakes, droughts, floods, wildfires, and volcanic eruptions with up to daily resolution. Yet, aqueduct carbonate offers comprehensive anthropogenic information through its connection to settlements served by water supply systems in which the archive formed. This applies because the archive is forming at the heart of ancient cities and recording the environment and society. This originality of aqueduct carbonate provides the opportunity to study the historical past, human interference with the environment, human activity aspects such as ancient water management and the impact of environmental forcing, natural or self-inflicted, on society, in the middle of urbanism. Hence, during this action, we investigated the potential of the carbonate archive in three aqueduct carbonate series from neighbouring sites in Southern France.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Natural archives such as travertine, speleothems and tree-rings are used to understand past environmental changes and to predict effects of future changes. However, such archives lack a direct link with civilization centres where changes in socio-economy and urbanization, particularly in respond to extreme natural events, can be investigated. New archives are needed near ancient urban centres, especially for the Mediterranean with the threat of droughts and desertification. AQUEA presents calcium carbonate deposits from Roman aqueducts as a new high-resolution archive to obtain both environmental and archaeological data for the Mediterranean in the Roman period. AQUEA will be hosted at Oxford University at two departments: the School of Archaeology and Earth Sciences. AQUEA will use samples of carbonate from three aqueduct sites in Southern France; Nîmes, Arles and Bellegarde, to study palaeoenvironmental changes besides local water management, urbanization and economy during the Imperial Roman period: this requires interdisciplinary collaboration of archaeologists and natural scientists. Therefore, the ER will be supervised by specialists in Roman archaeology, particularly on water management and Roman economy, and in palaeoenvironmental proxy analysis. Archaeological investigations include: interpretation of water structures and their context; use of textual sources on ancient environment, economy and water management; the use of archaeological databases, notably on Roman economy; and the relation of carbonate formation to various structural elements. Research in aqueduct carbonates will apply existing techniques and novel approaches such as Calcium isotopes and use of the CaveCalc numerical forward-modelling program, to better interpret analytical results in terms of ancient environment and Roman land use. AQUEA will address questions on a local scale on changing Roman climate, its implications on Roman economy, urban development and societal changes.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD · OxfordКоординаторОбединеното кралство