Research Projects

  • (A-3-1) Water Management

    The research objective of A-3-1was the investigation of ancient or historical water management. Water management turned out to be a very fruitful object in the sense of a “bridge topic” between environmental, archeological and social sciences, which is also high on recent political agendas and in academia. The primary goal of the project was to evaluate “water management” in its different applications and understandings at various time- and spatial scales. The junior research group “Water Management” was anchored in this research project. The work was carried out in close cooperation with Areas A-D.

  • (A-3-2) Water management in the western Mediterranean region

    Within the scope of this research project, technical and legal water management structures on the Iberian Peninsula that have survived from the Roman and Moorish periods were systematically collected, categorized and chronologized.

  • (A-3-3) Mapping of water technology

    This research project investigates the emergence of hydromechanics in the context of water management systems from antiquity to the Middle Ages.

  • (A-3-4) Water from a legal perspective

    This research project examined and evaluated the foundations and regulations of Roman law concerning water usage and distribution. The legal regulatory options were investigated and compared based on an analysis of juridical, gromatical and literary sources.

  • (A-3-5) Functionality and effectiveness of technical water-management measures

    This project developed hydrological models that facilitate a differentiated understanding of actual water balance conditions before and as a result of implementation of water management measures in the western Mediterranean region.

  • (A-3-6) Water Management of Mesopotamia in the 3rd Millenium BC

    This research project provided a close examination of the earliest cuneiform sources related to water management and examines its technological and social aspects in the Sumerian city-state economies of Southern Mesopotamia.

  • (A-3-7) Water Management of Ancient Cities on Sicily

    This project initially aimed at investigating water management of ancient cities in Sicily, adopting an interdisciplinary, diachronic, and comparative approach. Because of the limited time span of this project (2014-2017), focus was, first, quickly restricted on the water management of bathing facilities and, second, slightly shifted to include regions outside Sicily.

  • (A-3-8) The water clock - a case study in the origin of time measurement

    The project used 3-D-scans of preserved water clocks to measure and to analyse these genuine testimonies of ancient technology in detail with reference to their development and their functionality in a previously unique way.

Dissertation