Page - 6 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

6 AnnetteHaugandUlrichMüller visualunimportance runscounter to thecultic relevanceofwater.Kobusch locates lustralprac- tices close to the (architecturallymarked) borders of a sanctuary. Such architecturallymarked borders donot coincidewith theplacingof ritual ‘rites depassages’ involvingwater. ChristianeZimmermann focuses onadifferent religious setting:water in the early Chris- tiancult inCorinth (1st to6thcenturiesAD).Here, too,water ritualsmarked ‘liminal’ situations: the initiation into Christianity (baptism), in particular. In Corinth, it was not earlier than the 6th century AD that the ritual received an architectonic framing in the shape of the baptistery of theLechaionbasilica. In thecontext ofChristianity,water rituals received– for the first time in antiquity – their own, visually impressive building. Consequently, its architectural layout contributed to the temporal and spatial structuring of the ritual. The architectural formof the building (being related to bath plans) and its placing (outside the city, in the context of the necropolis) is thusalsomeaningfulwith regard to theunderlyingconceptionsof the ritual. The water ritual of baptism thus negotiates traditional and new concepts of water use.Water pos- sesses culturally specificmeanings. Urbanwater as amental category:Memory, identity, symbolism andceremonies Waterasamentalcategory isnot limited to religiouscontexts. Itsmetaphoricalmeaningunder- lies all contexts of social, cultural, political and economic life. Consequently, the cultural self- imagination (‘identity’), theconstructionofone’sownhistory (‘memory’), and theconstruction of the ‘other’ often involve narratives, images and actions related to water. Water becomes a highly charged symbolic good. ThearticlebyDylanRogers leadsus to thecentreofRomanpowerand identity: theForum Romanum in Rome, originally a swamp before the Cloacamaximawas built. He shows how, during theRepublic,manifoldnarratives referring toRomanmythandhistory (e.g.navalvicto- ries) involved rituals and ceremonies related to water and referring to the ‘aquascape’ of the place.Water rituals and their spatial anchoring thus contributed to the stabilisationofmemory and identity. TheageofAugustusmarkedadrastic change.Most of thebuildingsof theForum Romanumwere transformed architecturally, but above all, the emperors started to build new Imperial fora. Insteadof connectingmemory to ‘dead’water, thenew forawere equippedwith fountains staging ‘living’water.Water thusgains anewaesthetic quality. AdamRogers considerswater to be part of the urbanmateriality inmilitary forts, towns, butalso inpre-existingoppidaofRomanBritain–aregioncharacterisedbytheover-abundance ofwater.With the arrival of the Romanarmy, the ‘traditional’ land- andwaterscapes changed considerably. Roman territorial development built prominently on the ‘functional’ domination of land- andwaterscapes (bybuildingharbours, ports, canals, etc.). At the same time, it aimed at the appropriation of ‘symbolic’ water sites that were restructured and occupied by settle- ments. Thedomination ofwater and the creation of newwaterscapes thus becameameans of power. Inmedieval literature,waterwasusedasacomplexmetaphor forawiderangeofpurposes. Dahm-Kruse examines theirmultiplicity on the basis of the 13th century novels ‘HerzogErnst’ andKonradFleck’s ‘Flore andBlanscheflur’. Theauthors refer to thebroadsymbolic andespe- cially religious implications given to the element of water. In both epics, the well elaborated descriptions of waterworks are of great importance for the image of the city. They are central parts of various urban structures and architectural forms. On the one hand, it is obvious that theseportraits ofwater systems refer to biblical images and thusbecomeamediumof specific spiritual concepts. The descriptions of the garden of Eden orHeavenly Jerusalemhave, at the same time, aesthetic and representative functions. The visual depictions, on the other hand, also allowan insight into thematerial infrastructure connectedwith thewater systems.