the use of water wheels for draining ground water in roman mines

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Tanata,faculty of arts,tanata college,Egypt

Abstract

Roman mines faced numerous problems that caused work to be discontinued and sites abandoned. One such problem is groundwater resulting from digging near rivers or sees or leakages from the top of the mine. The Romans initially tackled this problem using the primitive means – current since the earliest times – of digging canals to redirect the flow of groundwater and then raising it using buckets and ropes. Later they introduced mechanical machines like Archimedes’ screw, which they soon replaced with the more modern waterwheel. An Alexandrian invention dating from the Ptolemaic era, the waterwheel had spread across the Mediterranean where it was used for agricultural work until the Roman era when its design was developed for use in a variety of fields including mining. Hundreds of waterwheels were used to lift water out of Roman mines.

This paper raises a number of questions regarding how the waterwheel was used in mines, how giant machinery was transported into the mine, what was the mechanism for operating them once they were inside, were they similar to agricultural waterwheels (which relied on either water pressure or human and/or animal power), and when and why the Romans started using them.

In the absence of primary sources dealing with the topic, research relies on various theories proposed following excavations in which mines were discovered at various points in history. The writer outlines the history of these discoveries and undertakes a comparative study of the theories proposed in order to reach the most plausible explanation.

The paper follows the following scheme:

1-Introducing and describing the waterwheel as defined by the Roman engineer Vitruvius;

2-Surveying the discoveries and presenting the theories that were proposed at the time they were made over the centuries; and

3-Surveying modern discoveries and comparing them to older ones.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

المراجع :
1-      https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ten_Books_on_Architecture/Book_X/Chapter_IV
2-      https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ten_Books_on_Architecture/Book_X/Chapter_IV
 
المراجع الأجنبية:
1-      Aquilino Delgado Domínguez ,2015, LA NORIA DEL MUSEO DE HUELVA, UN UNICUM EN LA ARQUEOLOGÍA ROMANA , De Re Metallica,
2-      Béatrice Cauuet ,April 2000 ,The Dolaucothy Gold Mines, Carmarthenshire (Wales, U.K.) ,Technical Report .
3-      DAVIES O. 1935: Roman Mines in Europe, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
4-      Domínguez ,A. Delgado ، 2011, Rotae Urionensis Las Noria Romanas De Riotinto (Huelva,Espana), TRAIANVS , 9
5-      DOMERGUE, C.; BINET, C; BORDES, J.H. 1999: “La roue de Sâo Dominguos”. La revue. Musée des Arts et Métiers, no 27
6-      El-Ghannam Wafaa,2010,”Water-lifting technology in Graeco-Roman Egypt “Science History Center,Cairo,
7-      George C. Boon and Colin Williams. (1966), The Dolaucothi Drainage Wheel.: The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 56, Parts 1 and 2
8-      Landels, J. G. 1977, Engineering in the Ancient World, University of California Press
9-      LUZON NOGUÉ, J. M. 1968: “Los sistemas de desagüe en minas romanas del suroeste peninsular”, Archivo español de Arqueología Vol. XLI, Madrid،.
10-  OJEDA CALVO, R. 2006: “La Rota del Museo de Huelva: apuntes sobre el origen, adscripción, uso y funcionalidad de una rueda de evacuación de agua hallada en Minas de Riotinto” en Rueda elevadora de agua de las minas de Riotinto: Memoria de Intervención. Cuadernos PH, no18. Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía. Sevilla
11-  LUZON NOGUÉ, J. M. 1970: “Instrumentos mineros de la España Antigua”, VI Congreso Internacional de Minería, Tomo I, León
12-  LEWIS, P. R. 1977: The Ogofau Roman gold mines at Dolaucothi, The National Trust Year Book 1976-77.
13-  Manzano Beltran ,p,2010,Las técnicas y las construcciones en la ingeniería romana , , Fundación de la Ingeniería Técnica de Obras Públicas,
14-  OLESON, J.P. 1984: Greek and Roman Mechanical Water-lifting devices: The History of a Technology, Toronto. University of Toronto Press,
15-  PALMER, R. E. 1926-1927: “Notes on some ancient mining equipments and systems” en Transactions Institution of Mining and Metallurgy Vol. XXXV, Cleveland House, 225, City Road London,
16-  RICHARD, T. A. (1928): The mining of the Roman in Spain, Journal of Roman Studies, XVIII, London,
17-  Robert Shepherd. 1993,Ancient Mining. Chapman & Hall, London and New York,
18-   Salkield, L.U,2014, A technical history of the Rio Tinto mines: some notes on exploitation from pre-Phoenician times to the 1950s, Springer Netherlands,
19-  STEVENSON, A.S. 1875: “Observations on a roman water Wheel from the ancient working of the mines of Tharsis in Southern Spain”. Archaeologia Eliana VII,
20-  WILLIES, L.1999: Roman Mining at Rio Tinto, The bulletin of the Peak District Mines Society Vol. 13, number 3.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics