British archaeologists fight with Italian farmer to save ancient aqueduct

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British archaeologists fight with Italian farmer to save ancient aqueduct - Telegraph: 

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A sophisticated example of Roman hydraulic engineering, the aqueduct, known as the Aqua Traiana, was inaugurated in 109AD and carried fresh water 35 miles to the imperial capital.

But since the discovery was publicised, the archeologists claim that the farmer on whose land it stands has begun a crude excavation of the site in the hope of finding valuable Roman treasure.

They claim to have photographic evidence that the owner has burned vegetation around the entrance to the underground grotto, cut down mature fig trees which are holding the fragile structure together with their thick roots and started to dismantle sections of masonry.

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Two thousand year old Roman aqueduct discovered

Two thousand year old Roman aqueduct discovered - Telegraph:
The underground spring lies behind a concealed door beneath an abandoned 13th century church on the shores of Lake Bracciano, 35 miles north of Rome.

Exploration of the site has shown that water percolating through volcanic bedrock was collected in underground grottoes and chambers and fed into a subterranean aqueduct, the Aqua Traiana, which took it all the way to the imperial capital.

Centuries later, it provided water for the very first Vatican, after Rome began to convert to Christianity under the Emperor Constantine.

The underground complex, which is entangled with the roots of huge fig trees, was discovered by father and son documentary makers Edward and Michael O'Neill, who stumbled on it while researching the history of Rome's ancient aqueducts.

They recruited a leading authority on Roman hydro-engineering, Prof Lorenzo Quilici from Bologna University, who confirmed that the structure was Roman, rather than medieval as had long been believed.
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Lasers and robots explore ancient Rome’s hidden aqueducts

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Lasers and robots explore ancient Rome’s hidden aqueducts - Telegraph:
Lasers and robots explore ancient Rome’s hidden aqueducts
With the help of precision 21-century technology, archaeologists are mapping a dozen tunnels that were carved by Roman engineers into the mountains east of Rome in order to supply the ancient city with water
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How a Roman Aqueduct Works - Archaeology Magazine Archive

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How a Roman Aqueduct Works - Archaeology Magazine Archive:
Ancient aqueducts were essentially man-made streams conducting water downhill from the natural sources to the destination. To tap water from a river, often a dam and reservoir were constructed to create an intake for the aqueduct that would not run dry during periods of low water. To capture water from springs, catch basins or springhouses could be built at the points where the water issued from the ground or just below them, connected by short feeder tunnels. Having flowed or filtered into the springhouse from uphill, the water then entered the aqueduct conduit. Scattered springs would require several branch conduits feeding into a main channel.
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Rome's Lost Aqueduct - Archaeology Magazine Archive

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Rome's Lost Aqueduct - Archaeology Magazine Archive:
Few monuments that survive from antiquity better represent Roman pragmatism, ingenuity, and the desire to impress than the aqueducts built to fulfill the Romans’ seemingly unslakable need for water. Around the turn of the second century A.D., the emperor Trajan began construction on a new aqueduct for the city of Rome. At the time, demands on the city’s water supply were enormous. In addition to satisfying the utilitarian needs of Rome’s one million inhabitants, as well as that of wealthy residents in their rural and suburban villas, water fed impressive public baths and monumental fountains throughout the city. Although the system was already sufficient, the desire to build aqueducts was often more a matter of ideology than absolute need.
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The Search for the Aqua Traiana

For the past several years, filmmakers Ted and Mike O'Neill have worked with archaeologists Rabun Taylor and Katherine Rinne to discover the remains of the Aqua Traiana, one of ancient Rome's greatest aqueducts. The short film here shows the team scouring the countryside north of Rome, discovering one of the aqueduct's spring houses, identifying construction materials and techniques unique to ancient Roman builders, exploring one of the aqueduct's channels, and pinpointing one of the locations where the remains of the Aqua Traiana were used to help build a Renaissance-era aqueduct that also fed the city's insatiable need for water.

Read "Rome's Lost Aqueduct," ARCHAEOLOGY March/April 2012, to learn more about their expedition and discoveries:
http://www.archaeology.org

Ancient Roman Aqueduct Source Discovered