Page - 132 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

132 AdamRogers During theRomanperiod, this areawasgradually transformedand this involved the construc- tionof revetments and thecanalisationof river channels.39 Excavationsof sectionsof channels have revealed that therewereoftenmultiplephasesof revetments connectedwith them.Along thewatercourse knownas the Southwark Street Channel excavations have produced evidence of two phases of revetment dating to the 1st and 2ndcenturies AD, the first of post-and-wattle and thesecondofpost-and-plankconstruction.Theground levelbehind themwasoften raised, and their functionwas probably to consolidate the channel banks and prevent erosion of the islands.40Theseactions taken to control andalterwaterwayswill havebeensignificant events, each forming an important element of the river biography and the development of the urban space.Repairworkand thebuildingofnew installationswill have representedcontinuedcom- mitment to the landaswell as the attempt tomaintaindominanceover it. Anotheraspectof landuseintheseurbancontextswastheconstructionofwaterfront instal- lations, such as ports andharbours. Port andharbour structureswere often created to exploit rivers and seas and tomove people and goodsmore easily. In so doing, they also altered the landscape in major ways and changed the way in which people encountered and interacted with thewater.The themeofportsandharbours isapopularareaof researchacross theRoman Empire, but their study conventionally focuses on the themes of trade and transport.41 They can, however, also be tied into the way inwhichwaterscapes and thewider landscape were used,exploitedandaltered.Archaeological evidenceatLondon included remainsof sectionsof timber box quays which were filled in with dumped material, constructed from the AD 60s onwards.42Thisreshapingof theriverfront intoport facilities formedpartof thewider landscape transformationas the towndeveloped inLondon.43 The constructionof theport, aswell as the bridgeacross theThamesand the treatmentof the smaller rivers,wereallways inwhichwater formed part of themateriality of the town. This relationshipwithwater, however, was not as straightforward as simply havingpurely economic or rational implications, as thenext section will examine. Water anddecentringurbanagency Thewaterscapesof townswereactedonandutilisedby residents, but thewater alsohadother impactsonhumanactionandexperience.Breakingdowndualismswithinarchaeological theory allows us to bring perspectives to bear on the meaning and significance of the relationship between towns andwater together. Thatmeanswe can consider the practical implications of water, aspart of theurban fabric, onurbanagency, butwecanalso thinkabout the rolewater had in themeaning of places and the impactwater had onhumanbehaviour from social and cultural perspectives.We can approach this impact of water through theway inwhichwater was also associatedwith religious activity and so alreadymeaningful before the foundation of the towns in theRomanperiod. It seems likely that the foundationofmanyof these townsalso playedarole in thecreationorconsolidationofgroupidentities,as reflected in thetownnames, although it is unclear towhat extent people felt like theybelonged to these groups orwhether it was more imposed. Identity, moreover, can also be influenced by places, landscapes and environments,aswell asdifferentontologiesandwaysofexperiencingbeyondthebrutematter of settlement structures. 39 Cowanet al. 2009. 40 Graham1988;Yule–Hinton 1988, 16. 41 Milne 1985; Jones 2009. 42 Brigham1998;Milne 1985; Swift 2008. 43 Rogers 2011.