THE ROMAN HYDRAULIC SYSTEM OF FRIGENTO, CAMPANIA (SOUTHERN ITALY)

摘要

The Romans solved the problem of supplying water to the settlement corresponding to modern Frigento (910 m a.s.l.) and to the road connecting modern Mirabella Eclano to modern Conza della Campania by constructing a storage system consisting of a series of cisterns. The latter were excavated in Cretaceous Flysch galestrino with the least degree of relative permeability, lying -below a surface level of pyroclastic sandy soil up to 5 m thick with a medium degree of relative permeability. The volume of water that the soil could have absorbed in one year over the 26,000 m2 - surface enclosed in the contour line 900 m a.s.l. ranges between 5,616 and 6,256 m3. This should be considered as a conservative estimate, since it does not include the quantity derived from melted snow, which cannot currently be computed due to lack of specific statistical data. The water thus accumulated in the cisterns formed a reserve available throughout the year.