Introduzione. Dighe, argini e opere difensive contro le inondazioni nel mediterraneo romano: introduzione e breve stato dell’arte

[EN] Among the infrastructures designed to control river flow in Roman times (dams), the ones that have most interested for the scientific community have been those of large scale and mainly located in arid or semi-arid regions. The monumentality of these works, their extreme location and, not infre...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Barahona Oviedo, María Luisa
Tipo de recurso: otro
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/420651
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/420651
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Dam
Diversion dam
Dykes
Flood control
Floodwaters
Hydraulic engineering
Roman Italy
Descripción
Sumario:[EN] Among the infrastructures designed to control river flow in Roman times (dams), the ones that have most interested for the scientific community have been those of large scale and mainly located in arid or semi-arid regions. The monumentality of these works, their extreme location and, not infrequently, the difficulty of their scientific study, have given rise to a distorted vision of the Roman dams as monumental and unusual (almost exotic) works built to irrigate or, to a lesser extent, to supply urban centres. Other types of dams, more numerous but smaller in dimensions and with a less apparent structural presence, have not suffered the same fate in the scientific literature, thus creating a false sensation of a material vacuum in this subject, far removed from reality. Many of these (small) dams, in addition to being linked to irrigation or be part of the urban water systems, like the big dams, had a specific defensive function against floods, often forming part of complex systems together with other infrastructures, such as dykes or other actions carried out on the banks of rivers (e. g., dredging operations or riverbed levelling). The scientific attention paid to these latter types of works is extremely limited throughout the Roman Mediterranean, and they are hardly mentioned in the great compendia of ancient hydraulic engineering. However, its study is essential in order to gain a deeper and more realistic understanding of the full extent of the dominion that Roman culture exercised over river courses, and to properly understand the function of these dams as a part of the Roman systems of territorial exploitation.