From Hydrology to Hydroarchaeology in the Ancient Mediterranean

Giovanni Polizzi is a postdoctoral fellow at the Frei Universität in Berlin after a PhD held jointly from the Universities of Aix-Marseille and Palermo. ; Vincent Ollivier is a Research Engineer in Geomorphology at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). ; Sophie Bouffier is Professor of ancient History at Aix-Marseille University (Centre Camille Jullian) and Dean of the Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’homme at Aix-en-Provence.

• Introduction – Sophie Bouffier and Vincent Ollivier ; The Impact of Climate, Resource Availability, Natural Disturbances and Human Subsistence Strategies on Sicilian Landscape Dynamics During the Holocene – Salvatore Pasta, Giuseppe D’Amore, Cipriano Di Maggio, Gaetano Di Pasquale, Vincenza Forgia, Alessandro Incarbona, Giuliana Madonia, César Morales-Molino, Silvio Giuseppe Rotolo, Luca Sineo, Claudia Speciale, Attilio Sulli, Willy Tinner and Matteo Vacchi ; Analyse historique des variations du débit provoqué par les séismes pendant les siècles XVe–XXe: le cas de Termini Imerese (Sicile centro-septentrionale) – Patrizia Bova, Antonio Contino and Giuseppe Esposito ; Le risorse idriche nel territorio di Alesa – Aurelio Burgio ; Aquae caldae. Note sparse sul termalismo e lo sfruttamento delle acque sulfuree nel territorio a est di Agrigento tra archeologia e paletnologia – Luca Zambito ; Archaeology and Hydrogeology in Sicily: Solunt and Tindari – Giovanni Polizzi, Vincent Ollivier, Olivier Bellier, Edwige Pons-Branchu and Michel Fontugne ; Baia (Bacoli-NA): l’acqua e il suo utilizzo nel complesso delle Terme romane – Daniele De Simone ; Natural Risks and Water Management in Delphi – Amélie Perrier, Isabelle Moretti and Luigi Piccardi

‘In conclusion, the volume is spot on in terms of topic, as material and cultural uses of water have co-shaped water systems, emphasizing the intrinsic proximity of natural and human worlds. Furthermore, in a world of human agents, the water infrastructure is more often the relevant materiality, with its object-like properties: it has sides (back, front, downside, inside) that typically block each other’s view. The archaeological record is full of these infrastructures, as the case studies in the book under review show. However, as much as landscapes are not static backgrounds, water infrastructure is closely related to dynamics. Infrastructure affects rhythm(s) of the substance water through space and time. This change of movement is not necessarily accepted by water and not necessarily useful for actors depending on the water, like fish and other water-dependent agents. As such, whereas the book by Polizzi and colleagues is timely to address the interplay of human(s), environment(s) and water(s), and provides very interesting data and details, it stays too far away from the existing scholarly work on how to conceptualize and study the dynamics of the interplays.’ - Maurits W. Ertsen (2024): BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXXXI N° 5-6