Barbegal: carbonate imprints give a voice to the first industrial complex of Europe

Sürmelihindi, Gül; Passchier, Cees W.; Leveau, Philippe; Spötl, Christoph; Bourgeois, Marcel; Vincent, Bernard

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.02.031

Cited by 5 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This stratigraphy is identical to that observed in the axle window of mill wheel pit W2 (Fig. 1 a) 30 , suggesting that the elbow-flume was employed on the west side of the mill complex: deposits in the eastern wheel pits of the mill complex show different stratigraphies 30 . A fragment, presumably from a bucket of a millwheel with a stratigraphy similar to the elbow-flume was probably derived from the same western mill train (Fig.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 69%

“…Carbonate fragments, presumably from the wheel and with the same stratigraphy as the flumes (Fig. 2c,d) suggest that the wheels were supplied with curved buckets 30 , an arrangement also seen in some other Roman mill wheels 35 .…”

Section: Millwheelsmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…The impression on the longer side of the segment shows fine, 4.8–5.2 mm wide regularly spaced sawing traces normal to the grain of the wood. The regular spacing and straight nature of these traces suggests that they were produced by mechanical sawing 30 . To our knowledge, this presents the oldest known record of the use of a mechanical saw to cut wood in history.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of the surviving large fragments of carbonate deposits from the Barbegal mills formed inside wooden millrun flumes, the elevated gutters that once transported water to the mill wheels (Fig. 2 a,b) 29 , 30 . Some carbonate fragments could be attributed to the waterwheels themselves (Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Barbegal, carbonate deposits have survived as casts of the original timber, which can provide detailed information about individual mill parts, shedding light on the operation of the complex 29 , 30 . For most carbonate fragments, it was possible to reconstruct on which mill parts they formed, but the origin of some pieces remained ambiguous.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reconstructing the hydraulics of the world’s first industrial complex, the second century CE Barbegal watermills, France

Passchier

Bourgeois²,

Viollet

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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The Barbegal watermill complex, a unique cluster of 16 waterwheels in southern France, was the first known attempt in Europe to set up an industrial-scale complex of machines during the culmination of Roman Civilization in the second century CE. Little is known about the state of technological advance in this period, especially in hydraulics and the contemporary diffusion of knowledge. Since the upper part of the Barbegal mill complex has been destroyed and no traces of the wooden machinery survived, the mode of operation of these mills has long remained elusive. Carbonate incrustations that formed on the woodwork of the mills were used to reconstruct its structure and function, revealing a sophisticated hydraulic setup unique in the history of water mills. The lower mills used an elbow shaped flume to bring water onto overshot millwheels. This flume was specially adapted to the small water basins and serial arrangement of the mills on the slope. Carbonate deposits from ancient water systems are therefore a powerful tool in archaeological reconstructions and provide tantalizing insights into the skills of Roman engineers during a period of history that is the direct predecessor of our modern civilization.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 69%

Section: Millwheelsmentioning

confidence: 67%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Reconstructing the hydraulics of the world’s first industrial complex, the second century CE Barbegal watermills, France

Passchier

Bourgeois²,

Viollet

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Carbonates from the ancient world's longest aqueduct: A testament of Byzantine water management

et al. 2021

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The fourth‐ and fifth‐century aqueduct system of Constantinople is, at 426 km, the longest water supply line of the ancient world. Carbonate deposits i659ide an archive of both archaeological developments and palaeo‐environmental conditions during the depositional period. The 246‐km‐long aqueduct line from the fourth century used springs from a small aquifer, whereas a 180‐km‐long fifth‐century extension to the west tapped a larger aquifer. Although historical records testify at least 700 years of aqueduct activity, carbonate deposits in the aqueduct system display less than 27 years of operation. This implies that the entire system must have been cleaned of carbonate, presumably during regular campaigns. A 50‐km‐long double‐aqueduct section in the central part of the system may have been a costly but practical solution to allow repairs and cleaning of the aqueducts of carbonate to ascertain a continuous water supply to the city. The fifth‐century channel was commonly contaminated with clay, caused by the nature of the aqueduct system and possible local damage to the channel. This clay‐rich water could have been one of the reasons for the construction of large reservoirs in Constantinople.

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Writ in water—Unwritten histories obtained from carbonate deposits in ancient water systems

Sürmelihindi,

Passchier

2023

Geoarchaeology

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Calcium carbonate deposits from ancient water systems such as aqueducts are a hidden archive for archaeology and environmental sciences. These deposits formed wherever carbonate‐rich water was in contact with a water‐containing structure and recorded water composition, temperature, biological content, the operation or nonoperation of a water system segment, flow discharge and velocity, the shape of disappeared segments of water structures, the number of years a water supply system was active, disruptions of the water supply and water management such as repairs, adaptations and cleaning. Indirectly, urban development, resilience, population‐ and socioeconomic dynamics can be studied through the stratigraphy of carbonate in water systems. Carbonate archives can also give insight into long‐term changes in paleoclimate and on environmental pollution, deforestation, extreme floods, droughts, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Archaeological and environmental investigations of carbonate deposits can provide data with up to daily resolution over decades to centuries. Although absolute dating of carbonate from water systems is still problematic, each study on the aqueduct of an ancient city, together with its carbonate deposits, provides its own microstory in Roman life.

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Barbegal: carbonate imprints give a voice to the first industrial complex of Europe

Cited by 5 publications

References 24 publications

Reconstructing the hydraulics of the world’s first industrial complex, the second century CE Barbegal watermills, France

Reconstructing the hydraulics of the world’s first industrial complex, the second century CE Barbegal watermills, France

Carbonates from the ancient world's longest aqueduct: A testament of Byzantine water management

Writ in water—Unwritten histories obtained from carbonate deposits in ancient water systems

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