Barbegal aqueduct and mill

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The Barbegal aqueduct and mill is a Roman watermill complex located on the territory of the commune of Fontvieille, near the town of Arles, in southern France. The complex has been referred to as "the greatest known concentration of mechanical power in the ancient world".[1] Another similar mill complex existed also on the Janiculum in Rome.

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[edit] Description

Today, the Barbegal aqueduct and mills are situated on a Roman aqueduct that was built to supply drinking water from the mountain chain of the Alpilles to the town of Arles, France (then called Arelate) on the Rhône River. Twelve kilometers north of Arles, at Barbegal, where the aqueduct arrived at a steep hill, the aqueduct fed a series of parallel water wheels to power a flourmill. There are two aqueducts which join just north of the mill complex, and a sluice which enabled the operators to control the water supply to the complex. The mill consisted of 16 waterwheels in two separate rows built into a steep hillside. There are substantial masonry remains of the water channels and foundations of the individual mills, together with a staircase rising up the hill upon which the mills are built. The mills apparently operated from the end of the 1st century until about the end of the 3rd century.[2] The capacity of the mills has been estimated at 4.5 tons of flour per day, sufficient to supply enough bread for the 12,500 inhabitants occupying the town of Arelate at that time.[3]

It is thought that the wheels were overshot water wheels with the outflow from the top driving the next one down and so on, to the base of the hill. Vertical water mills were well known to the Romans, being described by Vitruvius in his De Architectura of 25 BC, and mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia of 77 AD. There are also later references to floating water mills from Byzantium and to sawmills on the river Moselle by the poet Ausonius. The use of multiple stacked sequences of reverse overshot water-wheels was widespread in Roman mines.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kevin Greene, "Technological Innovation and Economic Progress in the Ancient World: M.I. Finley Re-Considered", The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 53, No. 1. (Feb., 2000), pp. 29-59 (39)
  2. ^ Ville d'Histoire et de Patrimoine
  3. ^ La meunerie de Barbegal

[edit] Further reading

  • Amouretti, M.-C.: 'Barbegal: de l'histoire des fouilles a l'histoire des moulins', Provence Historique, 167-8 (1992), pp.135-49
  • Bellamy, R. B. & Hitchner, P.- S.: 'The villas of the Vallee des Baux and the Barbegal Mill: excavations at la Merindole villa and cemetery', Journal of Roman Archaeology 9 (1996), pp.154-76
  • Benoit, F.: 'L'usine de meunerie hydraulique de Barbegal (Arles)', Revue Archéologique, sixième série 15.1 (1940), pp.19-80
  • Hodge, A.T.: 'A Roman factory', Scientific American (November 1990), pp.58-64
  • Leveau, P.: 'The Barbegal water-mill in its environment: archaeology and the economic and social history of antiquity', Journal of Roman Archaeology 9 (1996), pp.137-53
  • Lorenz, Wayne F., and Phillip J. Wolfram: The millstones of Barbegal (Possible usage of flour mill in Barbegal, France for testing designs of millstones). Civil Engineering, 77.6, June 2007, pp. 62-67
  • Lorenz, and Wolfram: 'Arches have no rivals (Unique Roman bridges offer clues as to how it was done centuries ago)', Roads and Bridges, September 2007, pp 28-50
  • Sagui, C.L.: 'La meunerie de Barbegal (France) et les roues hydrauliques chez les anciens et au moyen age', Isis, Vol. 38, No. 314. (Feb., 1948), pp. 225-231
  • Sellin, R.H.J.: The large Roman water mill at Barbegal (France), History of Technology, 8, 1983, pp. 91-109

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 43°42′09″N 4°43′17″E / 43.7025, 4.72139

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