Investigating disruptions and upheavals in the natural and anthropic landscape of Roman Gortyn through a water lens: five research challenges

The changes that followed the Roman conquest of Crete can be well analyzed in Gortyn. Compared to other Cretan cities, which were able to pass almost untouched under the Roman control, Gortyn as the capital of the new province it is expected that has adopted a way of living and organizing the urban space closer to the Roman one. One of the most evident elements of the Roman Gortyn is certainly represented by the aqueduct connected to thermal complexes and nymphaea. The study of the Roman water network seems to focus on the image of a city that is spread over a large area, where we do not know any traces of pre-Roman settlement and where there is no evidence of residential contexts from the Roman age. So very little can be said about the changes that the Roman water network brought to the urban community with regards to private uses of water, which is quite likely to have remained dependent on traditional collection and conservation systems (rainwater collection tanks). Much more evident is the change that the study of the new water system makes visible on the scale of the city and the surrounding area. The construction of the Roman aqueduct involves some visible and long-lasting changes, which mainly concern the choice of Mount Ida springs to be exploited and the amount of water to be directed towards Gortyn: a large quantity of water is in fact conveyed towards the city, while the plain at the foot of the ancient Festòs is almost totally deprived of it. This alteration in the natural balance of the hydrographic basin of the southern slopes of Mount Ida leaves a very strong mark on the landscape, with visible consequences in the long term. This upheaval does not happen immediately after the Roman conquest, but from the middle of the 2nd century AD, when the city seems to assume the typical features of a provincial capital: it is in fact in this period that the thermal baths of the Megali Porta, the great theater, the amphitheater, the stadium and the forum with the surrounding buildings are built. What happens between the Roman conquest, the establishment of the province of Crete and Cyrenaica and the 2nd century AD? This paper tries to understand if there are archaeological evidences that can explain the slow transformation of a local water system into the water system of a provincial capital or if it is more appropriate to talk about a new water system for an ancient city that, from a certain point of view, can be considered a new city.