Page - 169 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

10 SyracusanWaterNetworks inAntiquity 169 Fig. 8:Syracuse, error of layout in theBottiglieria branch (by3D survey). In Bottiglieria, the aqueduct begins at 198mabove sea level and its outlet in theNymphaeum isat 57m.TheslopecalculatedbyCavallari is0.5%,whichwasconfirmedbyour calculations, but with large variations depending on the location. For example, in the locality of Grottone, its slope varies from −0.87% to 1.1%with no logical sequential continuity; while we saw an evenmorepronounced slope in theBottiglieria (over 5%). Aproject built in several periods These technical features of thework showanancient arrangement: a completely underground route, zigzaggalleries,nosiphonandapath that follows thecontoursof theplainsandvalleys by following a regular slope to promote the proper flow to the city. It is reasonable to return quite farback in time to thecreationof this extraordinaryaqueduct in theGreekworld.But the two catchments donot appear to be contemporary and epigraphic evidenceunearthed in their galleries seems to emphasize this. The inscriptionofCiccio,mentionedabove,whichwasdamagedbysuccessivecoatings that local people applied in theniche, appears to date back at least to theHellenistic period, if not earlier. At about 50m from the catchment, the stretch of the Bottiglieria passes through an almost rectangular chamber,with anarea of about 3.70m2 (Fig.9). On the southwall, there is a sort of shelf. It is not known if it belonged to the original phase andwas a bench, or if it is the remnant of the original level of the area before the hydraulic gallery cut into it. On the northwestwall of the room is carved the relief of adoor, surmountedbyanarchitravemore or less trapezoidal, moulded, whose jambs were delimited by a painted red background. Inside the relief, acarvedcartridgecontains twosuspensionholes for supportingapinaxwhichwould holdan inscriptionor a lost image, or both. The chronologyof this relief canbe tracedback to