Page - 57 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

4 Water, Social SpaceandArchitecture atSelinous: theCaseof theUrbanSanctuary 57 Fig. 6:Selinous, reconstructionof theurbansanctuary during the 5th cen- turyBC, looking northwest. spring.28Moreover, the fountain looked out onto an open space accessible from several direc- tions: the streets Sf-E and SB and the north-south street running next to the retaining wall (Fig.6). Also, a street parallel to the city wall and coming from northeast likely reached the open space in front of the fountain.29 If we consider that the fountainwas probably the only one in theacropolis area andoneof the fewpublicwater sources in thewhole settlement, it is evident that itswaterwas tappedby themajority of inhabitantswhen theyneeded freshwater, insteadof thatdrawnfromthewells in thehouses.30This raises thequestionaboutwhoexactly attended this place. According to iconographic andwritten sources, drawingwater from foun- tains in Greek cities seems to have been an action performedmainly bywomen. Their social status isamatterofdebateandtheremighthavebeendifferencesaccordingtotimeandcultural areas.31 However, it is important to stress that, regardless of their status, women (andmen?) came togetherandchatted in frontofpublic fountains.Thus, this routinizedhouseholdactivity performed in the public space in front of fountains turned out to be a social practice.32 This mighthold truealso forSelinous’ fountain. Indeed,even though itwas related to thesanctuary, the fountain overlooked an outside square accessible from several directions. Moreover, the fountain location–close to theharbour– likelymade itawatersourcealsoavailable forseafar- ers looking for freshwaterduring their stopsatSelinous.33Therefore, the fountainand thearea in frontof itmighthavebeennotonlya spaceof social interaction for the inhabitants,butalso a spaceof encounter between locals and foreignpeople. 28 According toMertens 2006, 214 andFurcas 2019, 79, therewasa functional relationbetween the fountain and entrance to the sanctuary. 29 R.Martinargued thata street for religiousparades ranhereandwas relatedwith thenortheast entrance to the sanctuary (Martin 1980/1981, 14). 30 On thewells of Selinous, seeFurcas 2019, 81–83. 31 Extensive literature exists on the subject and ismanly based on Athenian figured pottery. An extended and useful contribution on the topic is Kosso – Lawton 2009 (with previous references). Iozzo 2003, 20–22 suggests that the depictions of women at the fountain on Athenian figured vases had different meanings according to different contexts andperiods. 32 On social practices as routinized activities, see: Reckwitz 2002. About social practices as spatial phenomena, seeSchatzki 2015, 1–3. 33 Bouffier 2009, 71 argues that, because of its off-centre location, the fountainwas used by people arriving at Selinous fromoutsideorcoming fromtheharbour.Wewould like toknowif inhabitantsofSelinousandforeigners could freely access the fountain and if it wasmanagedby the sanctuary or other authorities. Regarding the legal andeconomicaspectsofwater resources inGreeksanctuaries, see:Panessa 1983;Alberico2017. SeealsoKobusch, this volume.