Water Runs Downhill – and that’s a Good Thing

               

     Jeannette has already posted about our amazing visit to the nearby archaeological site of an ancient Roman house at Antronados.  We both were awe struck to say the least, and as she mentioned, we had the rarest of privileges to actually step onto those mosaics and into the rooms. My feet were still tender from the new shoes I bought the other day, so I wore my slightly beat up every day working loafers that have a soft crepe rubber sole.  It was a good day to wear sneakers and soft soled shoes like that because the archaeologist/guide said he’d already noticed we all had shoes on that would not hurt the surface.  High 5!

     I’ve heard of ancient civilizations such as the Greco Romans whose engineering skills were “modern and advanced” enough to have indoor plumbing - but I could never picture that in my head because my scope of plumbing understanding is limited to our kind of underground water pipes that are pressurized and pump the water to your house.  Duh.

     But when you build a house that is dug into the side of a mountain, and fresh water springs abound up above the house, you let gravity flow be your “plumber.”  All you have to do is channel the water, and so these people of yester year did just that.  An elaborate schematic of collection cisterns were built up hill from the house where the water would pool, and branching from there they laid clay pipe sections that were about 18 inches in length which interlocked just like today’s water pipes are made.

     The pipes descended from the cistern and came through the outside walls, where they poured into another indoor cistern, from which one would probably use a dipper of sorts to get a drink or to fetch water for cooking.  Overflow water cascaded down into a shallow gutter that carried water downward through room walls to the lowest level which would have been their toilet room.  It looked as if a “toilet” would have been a stack of stones forming a perch upon which to sit.  (I don’t know what they did for paper.  Eeeek!)  From there, waste water flowed out of the house and down the hill.  Pretty clever I’d say.

     This reminds me of the movie “Shangri-La” from the 70’s in which a team of American explorers climbed a forbidding Himalayan mountain and came upon narrow passage that led to a fertile valley with a perfect climate.  This was the mythical place they had heard the folklore about and sought to prove its existence.  There, they discovered a village of beautiful, ageless, guileless and friendly people who cordially welcomed them.  (This movie was really popular during the Hippie movement).   One of the explorers was an engineer who showed them how to capitalize on the springs of water flowing down for hydraulic power.  Typical of us Americans always thinking that our modern ways of doing things are better for people everywhere.