Did Roman houses have rain gutters?

[Wander]

I'm just curious: Do we have any evidence that Roman houses -- or other buildings in the Roman world -- had some form of rain gutters? Or did they just let it drip off the tiles?

They certainly had the technology to make them -- something like a half pipe of terra cotta springs to mind as an easy way. I guess it's really a question of whether they thought it was important enough.

Based on that, I'd be more likely to look for them in a rainy climate, like Britannia for instance, than in, say, Tunisia or Hispania.

Anybody got an answer?

[M. Demetrius]

Rain was collected in garden tubs sometimes. Some atria had open roofs that slanted inwardly, meaning that rain would necessarily come into that area. Pools and such needed a source of water, and rain is free.

[Octavianvs]

i remember seeing some times that had a motiv on it ( leg XX ) these went on th eends of the lowest tiless. if they were there i would believe a gutter would block seeing these tiles. i dont remember seeing gutters reconstructed in pompeji. Abicio brings up a good point about the atriums ( which you can see in pompeji ) and then the colour bands that are seen around the bottom of buildings presumably to hide the dirts that splash up and make it easier to clean. to read more on the red bands check out:

http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... highlight=

and thanks to Graham for this image !


i dont know if any of this helps you at all or not. oh yuo will also notice that you dont see any gutters on the reconstructed building.

[Wander]

Thanks to both! I remember that image from the "paint bands on buildings" discussion, and you're right -- it doesn't show any gutters, and it certainly suggests splashing in the mud.

Also, I knew about the roofs sloping in toward the impluvia (is that the right word?), but that would work either with or without gutters. Still, it's looking more and more unlikely.

Archaeology might give an indication, if the diggers went looking for such a thing: either rows of rounded rocks, or some mud showing evidence of turbation in a line below the eaves' edge. (And the photo above shows a clear line demarcating where the rain falls.) If there were gutters, such a line of mud would be unlikely.

For that matter, fragments of broken gutters might also be an indicator.

I wonder if Vitruvius said anything about managing rain runoff.

[Eleatic Guest]

I do not know whether they knew rain gutters, but the Archaic Greeks actually introduced the curved roof to get the rain from the mud walls of their temples away - a thousand years before such roof structures were known in China. When they made the transition to monumental stone architecture around 600 BC, curved roof were gradually phased out in favour of straight ones, which dominate Western architecture to this day.

[Epictetus]

I wonder if Vitruvius said anything about managing rain runoff.

Indeed he does. It seems like Vitruvius thought of everything.

In the simae which are over the coronae on the sides of the temple, lion's heads are to be carved and arranged at intervals thus: First one head is marked out directly over the axis of each column, and then the others are arranged at equal distances apart, and so that there shall be one at the middle of every roof-tiling. Those that are over the columns should have holes bored through them to the gutter which receives the rainwater from the tiles, but those between them should be solid. Thus the mass of water that falls by way of the tiles into the gutter will not be thrown down along the intercolumniations nor drench people who are passing through them, while the lion's heads that are over the columns will appear to be vomiting as they discharge streams of water from their mouths.

Vitruvius. 3.5.15.

This is just where he specifically mentions gutters, but he talks about drainage and water damage in a number of different places. Let me know if you want more quotes and I can dig through and find them.

[brennivs - tony drake]

I would like to say that at Arbeia when I was excavating we found the end of a piece of guttering with a downcomer hole and a recess for the pipe underneath. This was found if memory serves on the path infront of the 3rd AD barrack block around the site of the reconstruction. will see if I can get a pic after my hols
Regards Brennivs

[PhilusEstilius]

I like Brennvs also excavated at Arbeia however I also excavated at Segedunum, where in the courtyard of the Hospital at the end of a doorstep there was a circular carved stone. This particular stone had also a draining channel that poured water into a drain that went around the inner courtyard. It looked very much like this circular and decorative stone collected water from a down pipe at the side of the entrance to a building, sadly the one on the opposite side of the doorstep was missing. This gave every indication that a roof drain did bring water to a particular point, or indeed two particular points near this door then into a drain where a feed off from this drain went of to the Hospital toilet.

[PhilusEstilius]

There is another point to this Hospital if it is of interest, in some of the rooms that may have been wards for the ill or sick there were earthenware pots sunk into the floor. These pots were minus there bases so were they being used as chamber pots for those who could not get to the toilet for a wee.??