This project seeks to propose a better understanding of the heating technology used in the bath buildings of central Italy (understood here as the modern provinces of Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Marche, Umbria, Abruzzo and Molise), through the case-study of the central baths of Aquinum, in southern Lazio.
The project emerged from an investigation into the technology of baths in the framework of my recently completed doctoral dissertation on the architecture of the Imperial-period public baths of central Italy. The enthusiasm generated by a presentation on bath heating technology at a conference on Roman baths in Italy (K. Beaufay, ‘Tecnologia termale’, in M. Medri and A. Pizzo (eds) (2019), Le terme pubbliche nell'Italia romana (II secolo a.C.–fine IV d.C.): architettura, tecnologia e società. Seminario internazionale di Studio, Roma, 4–5 ottobre 2018 (Rome, Roma Tre-Press), pp. 535–44) underlined the interest of scholars and archaeologists working on baths for this topic.
The investigation will focus on the construction materials and techniques of hypocausts and furnaces, on the choice of materials, the shape and dimensions of individual pieces, and their location and setting up in the building, and will unfold in several parallel steps. I will conduct an examination, on site, of the heating technology of the baths of Aquinum, the most important new excavation of a Roman bath in Italy for decades. With the largest heated surface and equipment of all the known bath buildings of central Italy outside of Rome and Ostia, they are an exceptional — yet representative — case-study to understand better the heating systems and technology of the baths of Italy. The publication of this case-study will also provide the opportunity to propose a method for approaching heating systems, identifying what information should be included in archaeological reports and publications, and why it matters. In parallel, comparative material from other central Italian bath buildings, both public and private, will be collected from published material in order to place the complex of Aquinum in its broader regional context.
The goal is not only to better our understanding of the technical aspects of Roman heating technology in Italy, but also to investigate the question of the diversity and standardisation of the materials and design of these heating systems, as well as to emphasise their role in the regional economy. There is a noticeable degree of variation in the way hypocausts were built, particularly in the nature, shape and dimensions of materials; these variations are accounted for partly by the local availability of building material, but as hypocausts required specific types of ceramic building materials, these could also be ordered upon request from production facilities with a wide-ranging offer. The production and transportation costs of materials therefore also played a role in their selection. This is far from the picture of a completely standardised production and construction process, as Vitruvius would have us believe when he describes how baths heating systems are built (De Architectura V.10.2); such a picture was possibly valid for Rome and its surroundings, but lost its validity further from the Urbs. A corollary of this research will be to underline the scientific interest of the provincial baths of central Italy. For decades, the better preserved and studied baths of Rome, Ostia and Pompeii have taken centre stage; by considering the baths at Aquinum together with other central Italian baths, this research will contribute to place these lesser known but no less important buildings in the spotlight.
The three months at the British School at Rome have allowed me to complete an extensive library data collection, using excavation reports, site publications and the occasional longer description of individual bath buildings. These data were then fed into a large database garnering all the details of heating systems. The BSR Library, with its extensive collection on the archaeology of Italy, provided the ideal location to complete this first stage of the research. I am very thankful to the BSR and the members of staff for providing this ideal research environment.
