Page - 125 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

8 Water andDecentringUrbanism in theRomanPeriod 125 perspectives. ThephilosopherBrunoLatour,6 for instance, has emphasised that the concept of ‘modern’ isproblematic,sincehumanscontinuetoact inmanywaysthatwouldnotberegarded as ‘modern’.Wecanalsobemoreambitious in theway inwhichwethinkabout thepast,where we also need to be careful in the way inwhichwe project our perceptions of rationality and civilisationonto thepast. Oneof thekeyareas thathas formedapart ofdevelopmentofpost-processual archaeology inRomanstudies is thatofpost-colonialismandthecritiqueofRomanisation.Thispost-colonial perspectiveplacedanemphasis on critiquing the top-downapproach inRomanstudies,where theeliteRomanperspectivehad tended tobeprioritised. Inurbanstudies, thesedevelopments have seen a rise in interest in the relationship between pre-existing peoples and the Roman incomers and the affect this had onurbandevelopment.7 Important studies, including of indi- vidual cities andcomparative investigations, havebeenundertakenacross theEmpire, looking at the complexity of urbanorigins anddevelopment andemphasising theneed to lookat local circumstances as well as wider themes.8 The urban landscapes and their settings, however, have tended to continue to be treated in fairly conventionalways, including theway inwhich theyhaveprioritised theRomanperspective in their development. Across theareaof thevastRomanEmpire, citiesandothersettlementsexistedordeveloped within different environments and landscapes, and, as such, had different relationships with water. Thismateriality of urbanism, includingwater formingpart of towns, needs tobeunder- stood from the perspective of the people that developed and lived in the settlements andhow they experienced them. The themeof urbanismandurbanorigins in theRomanEmpire, espe- cially in the context of provincial expansion, is an area that has tended to be tackled from the perspective of theRomanconquerors and is dominatedby the analysis ofmilitary activity and the conversion of pre-existing settlements. The relationship betweenwater and urbanismpro- videsanexamplewithwhichwecandeveloppost-colonialperspectivesonurbanismandidenti- ty in theRomanperiod. Urbanism, urbanorigins and function, are tackled from theperspective of hierarchies and civilisationaswell as theeconomy,globalisationandnetworks.Weseeearlyon in thedevelop- mentofarchaeologyan interest in theoriginsofurbanismandattempts tounderstandpatterns inurbandevelopmentbut the issuesare tackled fromoneperspective. These studieswerewrit- ten within the context of the development of urban studies as a field of interest, all looking with interest toexplainandunderstandurbanism,especiallyasa resultof industrialisationand 20thcenturyeconomicchanges.ThearchaeologistVereGordonChildedevisedamodelofurban development involving ten categorising points that he regarded as defining urbanism.9 These points included such factors as monumental buildings, the production of a surplus and the undertakingof tradeactivities.Thesecategorisationsemphasisedtheconceptofsettlementhier- archieswhere largercitieswere regardedasmore important thansmaller settlements.KarlWitt- fogel, inhiswork ‘OrientalDespotism’,10arguedfor thecentral roleofwater in thedevelopment of early civilisations.He emphasised the concept of the ‘hydraulic society’ and ‘hydraulic des- potism’wherebywaterwasusedasa formofpower.Heargued that thecontrolofwater supply and irrigation systems led to the creation of a social or governmental structure in these early civilisations, suchas inMesopotamia, India andChina. In theRomanEmpire, thediffering terrainsawvarying levelsofaccessibility towateracross theprovinces. Thismeant that cities couldhaveverydifferent relationshipswithwater. InBrit- ain there is evidence that there couldbeproblemswith flooding fromrivers andwetlands, and 6 Latour 1993. 7 E.g. Creighton 2006;Revell 2009. 8 E.g.Mladenović 2012; Raja 2012;Haeussler 2013;Reddé–VanAndringa 2015. 9 Childe 1950. 10Wittfogel 1957.