Hydreuma

In Roman Egypt, Hydreuma (plural hydreumata) was an enclosed (and often fortified) "watering station" along trade routes in dry regions. A hydreuma was a manned and fortified watering hole or way station along a caravan route, providing a man-made oasis.

Etymology

The term Hydreuma only refers to wells, not to any other source of water. Water-tanks were known as hydreia or lakkos; technically the term hydreuma wasn't being applied to these forts.^[1] An example of the other usages of the term "hydreuma" are the water basins of Roman era-Kharga Oasis^[2] and outlying parts of villages with wells there.^[3] The Arabs called these Roman fortified wells dêr (monastery), kariyah (village) or diminutive kurêyah or wekâla (caravanserai).^[4]

Construction, use and history

Hydreuma are fortified water supply posts in the Eastern Sahara. According to Strabo they had wells or cisterns:^[5]

• A hydreuma had either one large cistern or several smaller ones, and they could be supplied by runoff from neighbouring mountains. The cisterns were built out of bricks or stones, coated with waterproof plaster,^[6] and almost certainly covered to protect them from evaporation.^[7] Some may have received water conveyed through channels from nearby springs.^[8] In at least one hydreuma, hydraulic tanks and troughs^[9] were found.^[10] Wells were located at the bottom of funnels dug into the sand,^[11] and later wells often included water sweeps or water wheels.^[12] The use of water wheels in hydreumata is unproven, however.^[13]
• Commonly, the fortifications formed square-shaped buildings with dimensions of 30–60 metres (98–197 ft) with one gate to the outside, although circular or unfortified or embanked hydreumata are also known.^[14] The structures had one gate to the outside,^[15] towers with stairs at the corners, and several rooms facing an interior courtyard that contained the wells or cisterns. The rooms, presumably covered with roofs made out of plant material,^[16] were presumably used as barracks while animals remained within the courtyard. The hydreumata were situated along trade routes.^[15]

Apart from water supply, they might have been used as trading monitoring posts for tax collection purposes, as garrisons and also as military-representative structures.^[17] Some hydreumata were used as water sources to irrigate land,^[18] and to supply water for the port of Berenice Troglodytica (Berenike).^[19] The fortifications served to protect the well from desert sand.^[20]

These forts are attested by Pliny, in texts found through the Eastern Desert,^[1] reports of individual transports,^[21] as well as in the Antonine Itinerary and the Tabula Peutingeriana.^[22] While Strabo mentions that the first ones were built by Ptolemy II,^[23] most were built by the Romans between the first and second century AD on the old Egyptian routes between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea,^[5] after the earlier Ptolemaic trade route between Edfu and Berenike was largely abandoned.^[24] Reportedly, Emperor Vespasian fortified many hydreumata, which thus became praesidia,^[1] presumably because indigenous people began to use camels for raids.^[22] They were later often repaired or reconstructed. Today many are either destroyed or buried by sand,^[25] some were restaurated in the early 20th century.^[26]

Roads with hydreumata

They are found along the old roads that lead to Berenike and Myos Hormos. These ports were part of the Roman-Indian trade routes and were active during the era of the early Roman Empire, when as many as hundred ships departed from Berenike every year,^[27] and are mentioned in ancient accounts like the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.^[15] Traffic through these routes increased after the discovery of the monsoon winds^[28] and was mostly by caravan, without wagons.^[7] These ports were not self-sufficient, instead relying on supplies brought to them overland from the Nile Valley, as contemporary records indicate.^[29] The roads were not paved nor did they feature milestones, sometimes they were not even cleared of rocks on the roadway.^[30] Numerous branch roads connected the roads with each other and with sites like quarries.^[31] Caravans on average would have reached each hydreuma after two days from the last one;^[32] Strabo reports that some travel occurred during night.^[33]

The two roads to Berenike and Myos Hormos have distinct hydreuma architectures, which may be due to them having different strategic importance to the Romans,^[32] as the Koptos-Myos Hormos route may have doubled as an internal military border.^[34] Additionally, there are non-hydreuma buildings along the roads,^[35] as well as gold mines.^[36]

Examples

• Adams, Colin (2013). "Natural Resources in Roman Egypt Extraction, Transport, and Administration". The Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists. 50: 265–281. ISSN 0003-1186. JSTOR 24520099.
• Brun, Jean-Pierre; Faucher, Thomas; Redon, Bérangère; Sidebotham, Steven (2018). The Eastern Desert of Egypt during the Greco-Roman Period: Archaeological Reports. Institut des civilisations. Paris: Collège de France. doi:10.4000/books.cdf.5230. ISBN 9782722604889.
• Eccleston, Mark (29 March 2007). "Craft and Social Identity of Metalworkers in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt". Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal (2006): 1. doi:10.16995/TRAC2006_1_16. ISSN 2515-2289.
• Hester, James J.; Hobler, Philip M.; Russell, James (1 October 1970). "New Evidence of Early Roads in Nubia". American Journal of Archaeology. 74 (4): 385–389. doi:10.2307/503133. JSTOR 503133.
• Kucera, Paul N. (2005). "The late Roman fort at Qaret el-Toub in Baharya Oasis: towards a contextual understanding". Artefact: The Journal of the Archaeological and Anthropological Society of Victoria. 28 (2005): 23–34 – via Academia.edu.
• Munzi, Massimiliano; Schirru, Giancarlo; Tantillo, Ignazio (November 2014). "Centenarium". Libyan Studies. 45: 49–64. doi:10.1017/lis.2014.10. S2CID 232394735.
• Murray, G. W.; Warmington, E. H. (1967). "Trogodytica: The Red Sea Littoral in Ptolemaic Times". The Geographical Journal. 133 (1): 24–33. doi:10.2307/1794358. ISSN 0016-7398. JSTOR 1794358.
• Murray, G. W. (April 1925). "The Roman Roads and Stations in the Eastern Desert of Egypt". The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 11 (1): 138–150. doi:10.1177/030751332501100137. S2CID 192277641.
• Rossi, Corinna; Troia, Nicoletta De; Pasqui, Andrea; Migliozzi, Antonello (2022). "Living in a fringe environment: three Late Roman settlements in the Kharga Oasis (Egypt's Western Desert)". Journal of Roman Archaeology. 35 (2): 743–778. doi:10.1017/S1047759421000829. hdl:11311/1231871. ISSN 1047-7594. S2CID 250001234.
• Scott, Christina W. M. (1 November 2011). "A Long Walk in the Desert: A Study of the Roman Hydreumata along the Trade Routes between the Red Sea and the Nile". Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections. 3 (4): 16–27. doi:10.2458/azu_jaei_v03i4_scott. ISSN 1944-2815.
• Sidebotham, Steven E. (1994). "University of Delaware Fieldwork in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, 1993". Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 48: 263–275. doi:10.2307/1291733. ISSN 0070-7546. JSTOR 1291733.
• Sidebotham, Steven E. (1996). "An Overview of Archaeological Work in the Eastern Desert and along the Red Sea Coast of Egypt by the University of Delaware-Leiden University 1987-1995". Topoi. Orient-Occident. 6 (2): 773–783. doi:10.3406/topoi.1996.1694.
• Sidebotham, Steven E.; Zitterkopf, Ronald E.; Helms, C. Christina (2000). "Survey of the Via Hadriana: The 1998 Season". Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. 37: 115–126. doi:10.2307/40000526. ISSN 0065-9991. JSTOR 40000526.
• Sidebotham, Steven E. (2002). "From Berenike to Koptos : recent results of the desert route Survey". Topoi. Orient-Occident. 3 (1): 415–438.
• Sidebotham, Steven E. (2003). "Ptolemaic and Roman Water Resources and Their Management in the Eastern Desert of Egyot". Ptolemaic and Roman Water Resources and Their Management in the Eastern Desert of Egyot: 1000–1030. doi:10.1400/126217.
• Wilson, Andrew (1 January 2015). "1 Red Sea Trade and the State". Across the Ocean: Nine Essays on Indo-Mediterranean Trade. Brill.
• Woźniak, Marek (2019). "Operating and defending Red Sea harbors and Eastern Desert trails in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods: the case of Berenike". Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean. 28 (2): 389–409. doi:10.31338/uw.2083-537X.pam28.2.21. S2CID 240634957.
• Żurawski, Bogdan T. (1 January 2021). "9. Makuria Deserta. Some Observations on the Changing Pattern of Desert Trails in the Western Bayuda Desert and its Impact on the History of the Region". Bayuda and Its Neighbours. 1. Brepols Publishers: 169–187. doi:10.1484/m.nubia-eb.5.128055. ISBN 978-2-503-59906-9. S2CID 245416784.
• Zitterkopf, Ronald E.; Sidebotham, Steven E. (August 1989). "Stations and Towers on the Quseir–Nile Road". The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 75 (1): 155–189. doi:10.1177/030751338907500113. S2CID 192985550.