Présentation de l'éditeur
La création romaine n’est pas seulement analysée ici comme un objet isolé mais comme la composante active et largement évolutive d’un « géosystème » dont il importe d’étudier les effets à chacune des phases de la vie du monument. À ce jour, il s'agit de l’ouvrage le plus complet sur cet édifice.
Quatrième de couverture
Multidisciplinary research, together with archaeological excavation and numerous discoveries, both on-site and in the laboratory, have been carried out since 1984, on the Nimes Aqueduct, more commonly known as the Pont du Gard. Now, one of the most well known, this Roman aqueduct is remarkable due to its artistic quality (bridges, arches and tunnels), its gentle gradient of a highly technical design, and also the clearly functional collector basins for regulation and distribution.
This volume is a new publication, with additions, of the work that was published in 1991. It puts together studies carried out within the « Archaeology, Geosystem and History of the Nimes Aqueduct » programme. Using research developments over the last ten years, the volume includes an identification table with statistics for the canal and its supports and an index of the names of places linked to the aqueduct.
The various contributors from the Human and Natural Sciences, have been grouped in twenty-one chapters and divided into three sections. In the first part, « Trace to Geosystem » , the impact of recent findings on the list of observations on the aqueducts course and its map is evaluated, and in particular on a longitudinal profile with gradients. In the second part, the analysis of carbonate deposits, found in the water channel, have enabled us to determine changes in water quality and flow. However, this « water memory » is also based on archaeological data and epigraphy for the source of the river Eure, the water system of ancient Nimes and in particular the castellum, which provided the water distribution for the city. The section « Archaeology and History » opens with a synthesis on Roman aqueducts followed by an analysis of the archaeological, architectural and carbonate deposit data. This analysis enables a reconstruction of the different phases in the working of the Nimes Aqueduct since its first use (around the year 50) until it was abandoned (around the year 500). A new chapter presents ideas on the building programme together with a hypothesis as to the aqueducts financing for which Domitius Afer, from Nimes and also water curator of Rome, perhaps played a part. The organisation of the antique site is perhaps best understood through studying the Sernhac tunnels. The fate of the aqueduct,, after being abandoned, has finally been considered through the
