Seite - 123 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

AdamRogers 8 Water andDecentringUrbanism in theRoman Period:UrbanMateriality, Post-Humanism and Identity Abstract: In this chapter, the relationshipbetweenwater andurbanism in theRomanperiod is examinedbylookingat thewaysinwhichwater formedpartof theurbanfabricandtheimplica- tions of this for understanding urban development, urban lives and identities, that decentres approaches to Roman urbanism.Water reminds us that the dualism of ‘natural’ and ‘human- made’ components of settlements and landscapes needs to be studied and brought together throughmeaningful frameworksof analysis. ‘Decentring’ urbanismdrawsondifferentperspec- tives of urbanismand allows us tomove away from the top-downRomanocentric approach to urban studies and look for additional perspectives and experiences. The example ofwater al- lows us to explore urbanism by looking at landscape, religion and ritual, and identity and experience. The paper focuses on the towns of Britain in the Roman era,with case studies of Colchester (Camulodunum), St Albans (Verulamium), London (Londinium), Lincoln (Lindum) andWinchester (VentaBelgarum), and reflects on theway inwhichprovinces across the Em- pire differed in the nature of urban development and urban experience. There was no one Romanworld,butmanydifferentworlds in theRomanerawhere thereweredifferent identities andexperiences. Introduction Thispaperexamineswaterasacomponentof towns in theRomanperiodandhowwecan look at the implicationsofwater formingpartof theurbanmateriality.Water canbeused todevelop decentred perspectives on these settlements and the experiences of inhabitants. This study draws on completed and ongoing work undertaken by the author on themes connected with urbanism in theRomanperiod,and the relationshipbetweensettlementandwater inarchaeol- ogy, aswell as the interconnected themes of identity and experience.1 Thework has included thedocumentation andanalysis of theway inwhich thewater formedpart of townscapes and how towns developed and altered the waterscapes of the areas in which they were founded. This alteration and use of landscape included the construction of port and harbour facilities, whose impactwent beyondeconomic functionandalsohad social implications.2 The paper addresses theway inwhichwater canbe regarded as an integral component of themateriality of towns. In otherwords, the issueof howhuman-madeand ‘natural’ elements of townscanbegivenequalprominence,breakingdowndualisms inacademicstudyandthink- ing about post-humanism, in the analysis of urban composition andwhat the implications of this is forunderstanding townsand theurbanexperience.Water formedpart of the landscapes ofmany of the placeswhere townswere constructed anddeveloped in the Romanperiod and water continued to formpart of theurban fabric. This alsomeant that thewater formedpart of theway inwhich the identity and experience of the town residentswere created.Many of the waterscapes inwhich townswere founded,and formedapartwerealtered in theRomanperiod as townsdeveloped,but there is alsoevidence that someat least of thesewateryplaces contin- ued tohaveasignificance thatdrewonearliermeaningsassociatedwith theseplaces.Thinking aboutwater in towns in thiswayhas implications for ‘decentring’urbanism,where ‘decentring’ 1 E.g. Rogers 2011; Rogers 2012a;Rogers 2012b;Rogers 2013;Rogers 2016. 2 E.g. Rogers 2011. OpenAccess.©2020AdamRogers, publishedbyDeGruyter. Thiswork is licensedunder theCreative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110677065-008