We’ve come about the drains -Roman Baths and Drainage
| Tony Rook, Independent Archaeologist | Recent Lectures |
| Tony Rook opened this season. A man of many parts, he has done worked in the building industry, been head of science in a secondary school, been involved in extra mural lecturing and excavation and has published many works on archaeology and local history.
The lecture started with the statement that archaeology is about people ant that the sites investigated mainly show the remains of buildings with only a small amount of data specifically related to people. However on most Roman sites here is a latrine and a bathhouse. These days everybody knows of these and how they work. For the Romans the bathhouse was both a luxury and a necessity. Although no two bathhouses were exactly the same they were all constructed on the same principles using the total range of Roman technology (heating, running water, drains, construction methods etc).
| All bathhouses consisted of the same elements. These were a latrine, a changing room, a warm room, a hot room, a hot bath and a cold bath. In addition to these a furnace and heat control system, a running water supply, a drainage system and a supply of fuel were required. As bathhouses were also considered a place of entertainment and relaxation good acoustics and entertainment areas were necessary.
The heating system consisted of an external fireplace with overhead airflow, which fed hot air to a hypocaust then through vertical ducts in the walls to a header at the top and to the outside through the wall. Tony only knew of one instance of a chimney. At one site there was evidence of a water boiler and a mixing system to control water temperatures.
| Initially bathhouses were small and dark as heat needed to be conserved, so the walls were thick and the windows small. Also the clear space available was constrained by the limitations of the roof trusses.
The heating of the buildings was developed with the use of square hollow tiles, which allowed the heat to be transmitted into the building easily without much external loss.
With the development of the arch and its three dimensional form, the dome the unobstructed room areas could be increased but with stone constructions large supporting walls were required. The final development was the use of concrete, which allowed large arches and domes to be used without the need for strong supporting walls.
The final construction phases of bathhouses gave large buildings with big room spaces and, because of improved heating, very large windows in some parts of the Roman world.
John Richardson |