Page - 215 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

13 Medieval andPost-MedievalUrbanWaterSupply andSanitation 215 sinceprehistoric times.This redirectedcreekwascalledGote,andwaseponymous to thesettle- ment.FollowingtheEtymologistswhohavetried to trace the(unusual)nameof thesettlement,3 the SaxonwordGutingimeans something like ‘settlement on a gutter’. Here ‘gutter’ seems to be used in themiddle lowGermanmeaning for canal, whichwould underline the artificiality of the stream–andwhich is confirmedby the results of the excavations that showed that the streamwas redirected. Presumably, around 1180 themedieval townwas founded directly beneath this old settle- mentandwasfortifiedwithawall, leavingtheproto-urbansettlementoutside.Thenamepassed on to the town,while the older villagewas now called dat olde dorp (the old village).4 It was only integrated into the townwhen a second fortificationwith a rampart andbroadditchwas erected from 1363 onwards. Water surrounded the town in the moat, which was ponded in several stepsbecauseof the sloping terrain.5 TheTowns Inside the towns, freshwaterwascrucial for the lifeofhumansand livestock. Itwasneeded for several purposes in every household: not only for drinking, cooking andwashing, but also – very important – for brewing. The small side streams flowing through thewestern part of the town of Göttingenwere therefore used as a natural water supply (Figs. 1, 2). One of the side streams,calledSmallLeineorCow-Leine,whichno longerexists, couldbe identified inexcava- tions in Groner-Tor-Straße 14.6 Greyish-blueish layers of clay show that this small streamhad cut into the underlying glacial pebbles. The small streamwas linedby a rowof smallwooden posts, possibly an attempt to control the flow ofwater and keep it in a bed. An accumulation of posts on thebank suggests a construction tomake thewatermore easily accessible. In somenorthGerman towns, a stream flowed in anopenbeddirectly through themarket street – like theGose inGoslar7 or theBrehme inDuderstadt in Lower Saxony,with a breadth of about 1m.8 Historical evidence gives a first date for the Brehme of 1276. Only as late as in the18thcenturywasthisopenwater linedwithstones. Itnotonlyservedasafreshwatersupply, but could also be used to flush away dirt and rubbish. In an attempt to keep thewater clean, several rules were passed, including the interdiction of washing pigs in the Brehme.9 An old, still repeatedrhyme10 indicates thatanofficialannouncementwasmadeon thedaybeforebeer brewing started, asking to refrain fromurinating in theBrehmeat this time (though it remains unclear if there is evidence for a legal rule inhistorical sources). Crafts andworkshops inneedofwater In addition to the ‘private’ need forwater, several crafts had an intensive need for water and rely on a constantwater supply. Theworkshopswere therefore often placed next to themoat or a river. In Göttingen, for instance, there were dyers, as the textile industry was important 3 Lehmberg 1999, 59. 4 Arndt 2016, 131. 5 Arndt 2010, 226f. 6 FStNr.48/07 (FStNr is the Find Site Number and is the reference number for the excavation in the archive of Stadtarchäologie Göttingen. This number is also referred to in the regular reports on Göttingen excavations in ‘Göttinger Jahrbuch’ – seeBibliography);Arndt 2007, 269–271;Arndt 2008, 103–106. 7 Griep 1998, 20. 8 Porath 1998, 60f. 9 Porath 1998, 60. 10 TheGerman rhyme says:Hiermitwird bekannt gemacht, dass niemand indieBrehmemacht, dennmorgenwird gebraut.