It is the most eastern structure of its kind: archaeologists have discovered the remains of an unfinished Roman aqueduct in Armenia. The building from the time of Emperor Trajan was intended to establish the royal city of Artaxata as the center of the Roman province of Armenia. But even before the completion of the aqueduct, the Romans gave up their claim to power in the far east. The find thus testifies to the era of the turning point in the development of the empire, say the scientists.
Monumental trademarks of ancient civilization: In many places you can still marvel at the remains of the towering Roman pipeline systems. These arched aqueducts transported water over great distances and over scenic obstacles to the cities of the empire. Finds of traces of these widespread Roman buildings are usually not very sensational. In the current case, however, the focus is on a location astonishingly far to the east. It is the former royal city of Artaxata, which has been in existence since 190 BC. BC formed a center of Armenia. According to ancient descriptions, Artaxata was a magnificent metropolis that was shaped by Hellenistic culture. Due to its location, it finally achieved great importance in the power struggle between the Romans and the powers of the East.
Roman traces in the far east
In order to gain insights into the history of this interesting city, an international team of archaeologists has been investigating the area of ancient Artaxata for several years. The results of geomagnetic analyzes revealed anomalies in the subsurface, which appeared to result in a dotted line. The archaeologists were then able to characterize the responsible structures through subsequent probing and drilling. As it turned out, these are unfinished pillars of an ancient arched aqueduct, which was apparently intended to supply Artaxata with water. “We reconstructed the planned course by means of a computer-aided path analysis between the possible sources and the destination of the water,” reports co-author Mkrtich Zardaryan from the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia in Yerevan.
The decisive indication that this was a Roman building project was provided by an analysis of the lime mortar used for the construction of the pillars: it was therefore a typically Roman recipe. The analysis of soil samples also made it possible to roughly date the construction of the aqueduct to the period between AD 60 and 460. As the experts explain, the reign of Emperor Trajan appears most likely. Because between 98 and 117 AD, the empire reached its greatest expansion and incorporated Armenia in the process. “The monumental foundations are evidently evidence of an unfinished aqueduct bridge that was built by the Roman army between 114 and 117 AD,” says first author Achim Lichtenberger from the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster.
Testimony to imperial failure
As he and his colleagues explain, the building was supposed to serve the Romans’ plan to establish Artaxata as the capital of the new province of Armenia. “The planned and partially completed aqueduct construction testifies to how much effort was made in a very short time to integrate Artaxata infrastructurally into the Reich,” explains co-author Torben Schreiber from the Wilhelms University of Münster.
But this plan apparently did not work: “The building remained unfinished because after the death of Trajan in AD 117, his successor Hadrian gave up the province of Armenia before the aqueduct was completed,” says Schreiber. He and his colleagues therefore now see in the find an interesting testimony from the turning point of the territorial development of the empire: the unfinished aqueduct documents the failed Roman imperialism in Armenia.
Source: Wilhelms University of Münster