This Curator, Janice Li, is now explaining about this project, which I am translating into BSL.
In 2019, three environmental archaeologists – Andrea L Brock, Laura Motta and Nicola Terranto – went to the River Tiber in Rome to carry out a survey.
On the bed of the River Tiber there are different locations at different depths.
They collected three columns of sediment, each approximately one metre in length.
These are shown here laid out horizontally.
These three samples contain 2,000 years of urban development, environmental and ecological change, human response and adaptation in Rome, which is also known as the Eternal City.
The top row is from 2,000 BCE.
It is sandy and loose in consistency, peppered with gravel and small stones.
This dates back to when the Tiber Valley was a swampy, open area prone to flooding, long before people settled there.
It was a landscape not yet ready for human development, but suitable for a range of activities including animals drinking at the river, crossing it, and so on.
The middle row is from 600–501 BCE.
It contains fine, wet sediment silt – the most dense and solid-looking layer.
This shows Rome’s first major phase of urbanisation.
At this time, there were buildings with stone foundations, monuments, and terracotta roofs.
By approximately 550–501 BCE, the Romans were doing so many things to manage the water in this swampy landscape – building platforms, drainage channels, dredging, filling in parts of the valley.
This period also saw the construction in Rome of the great network of sewers and canals called the Cloaca Maxima.
A Roman historian, Pliny the Elder, wrote praising this as an amazing feat of engineering.
The third and bottom row is from 200–101 BCE.
You can see visible chalk, ceramics, mortar inclusion, which shows heavy human activities in the area.
This sample has the lowest mortar inclusion, which marks the beginning of concrete construction, an important period in history.
The way the Romans handled their water and land was smart and complex, and it shaped how they built and lived.
They transformed swampy areas of Rome into usable land by constructing drainage systems.
Technology played a big role in this.
What was hugely helpful to the Romans in building their cities was the invention of hydraulic concrete, pipes, and aqueducts.
But it also required a society that was ready to do the work, and recognised the importance of water management.
They paid close attention to their environment and worked together to solve problems.
Local elites saw the value of actions that benefited everyone and were willing to adapt and invest in solutions.
Today, as countries, communities, cities across the world face many water crises, perhaps there is something to be learnt from how the Romans managed theirs.