That time an intern called a Roman aqueduct 'basically a fancy gutter'

I was at a dig site near Nîmes last summer and this kid straight up said the Pont du Gard was just an over-engineered drainage pipe. I got a bit heated because I spent a whole season studying how those arches distribute weight and the hydraulic concrete they used. He thought 'opus caementicium' was a fancy pizza topping. How do you guys handle people who think ancient engineering is simple or obvious?

2 comments

2 Comments

tyler49223d ago

and like yeah, on a basic level it moves water from point A to point B, but calling it a fancy gutter is just ignoring thousands of years of science and math. the romans didn't just throw rocks together, they figured out how to make concrete that literally hardens underwater and lasts two millennia. i mean, sure, an intern can say whatever they want, but it shows they don't respect the actual problem solving behind it. honestly, i just ask them how they'd get clean water uphill without a pump and watch them get quiet.

charles91923d ago

The Roman aqueducts also had to deal with the Minio River gorge near Narni, where they built a massive bridge 30 meters high just to keep the water flowing straight. Calling that a fancy gutter ignores the surveying tools like the chorobates, which let them maintain a precise slope over 50 miles of rough terrain. That's not just engineering, that's solving a logistics puzzle with nothing but water levels and some sticks.