A GIS-based assessment of the Byzantine water supply system of Constantinople

Abstract

16Despite the extensive archaeological surveys carried out in the last decades, little attention has been paid to 17 one of the longest water supply systems of ancient times -the Byzantine water infrastructure which fed 18Constantinople from the mid-late fourth century AD. This work uses modern satellite terrain data and 19Global Positioning System (GPS) data to assess this system and provide an improved description of its 20 route, total length and gradient profile. 44 validated GPS Control Points were correlated with ASTER 21 GDEM V2 digital satellite data and archaeological information in a Geographic Information System (GIS) 22 environment. We concluded that the total length of the water supply system was 426 km, and possibly even 29Keywords

Agent-based modelling and construction – reconstructing antiquity’s largest infrastructure project

“…Archaeologists have been using GIS within ABM for some time but mainly as a means of investigating settlement and movement patterns. In the case of constructing the water supply of Constantinople, where the system to be modelled is at least 425 km in length (Ruggeri et al 2016), this is an exciting possibility to explore innovative avenues of GIS and ABM applications within a vast and complicated terrain. Within the broader research project on the engineering of the water supply of Constantinople, the CLAWS (Constructing the Late Antique Water Supply) model is being designed on a much larger scale, encompassing a significant section of the channels and bridges that brought water to Constantinople (Figure 10).…”

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

“…The new city of Constantinople, therefore, required an extensive new water system, which was built on a grand scale in two phases (Figures 1 and 2). The first phase was built in the mid‐late fourth century during the reign of the Emperors Constantius II, Julian and Valens using three springs at Danamandıra and several springs at Pınarca, in two branches that joined near Kalfaköy (Figures 1 and 2a; Crow et al, 2008, p. 52; Crow, 2019; Ruggeri, 2018, pp. 51–53).…”

“…The channels were supported by over 90 bridges and by several tunnels up to 5 km long (Figure 3a‐c; Crow, in press; Crow, 2019; Crow et al, 2008). The aqueducts fed several large cisterns in the city and three huge open reservoirs, with a combined storage capacity of 900.000 m 3 (Ruggeri, 2018, p. 35, 244; Ward et al, 2017). In the fourth and fifth centuries, Roman engineers already had half a millennium of experience in the construction of water supply systems, but the Constantinople system was still a challenge due to its scale and the lack of nearby springs of sufficient discharge (Bono et al, 2001).…”

“…In the fourth and fifth centuries, Roman engineers already had half a millennium of experience in the construction of water supply systems, but the Constantinople system was still a challenge due to its scale and the lack of nearby springs of sufficient discharge (Bono et al, 2001). Due to the hilly terrain, the actual length of the combined channels was at least 426 km, and maybe up to 565 km if a double channel ran all the way to the city (Çeçen, 1996; Crow, 2012; Crow et al, 2008; Ruggeri, 2018, p. 98). This implies that the combined aqueduct system is the longest and most complex water supply system for a city in the ancient world, both in Roman and Byzantine times (Çeçen, 1996).…”

“…Limestone outcrops of the Eocene Soğucak formation, after Türkecan and Yurtsever (2002). Prominent bridges are marked as K18 to K31; (b) altitude profile of the aqueduct, after Ruggeri (2018). Black bars in the double section indicate bridges marked in (a) in the same sequence.…”