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I.—The Roman Baths at Bath; with an Account of the Excavations conducted during 1923

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2011

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Extract

The town or settlement of ancient Aquae Sulis comprised an area of less than thirty acres. It was encircled on three sides by the river Avon, and almost surrounded by the lofty outliers of Cotswold and Mendip. The situation was an attractive one, and singularly appropriate for the important structures contained within the walled area. The baths occupied a central position in the town, and were in length at least one-third of its width from east to west.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1926

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References

page 1 note 1 Essay on Waters, by Charles Lucas.

page 1 note 2 Attempts to Revive Ancient Medical Doctrine, by Alex. Sutherland.

page 6 note 1 A reservoir of similar plan is represented in Mau, Pompeii, ed. 1899, p. 226.

page 6 note 2 It will be noted that the original angle pilasters are not precisely opposite the piers, and were consequently unsuited to receive the necessary arch or beam at the point.

page 7 note 1 A coin of Hadrian was found adhering to the underside of one of the fallen added bases.

page 9 note 1 See illustration of similar cistern found at Corstopitum, Arch. Ael., 3rd ser., ix, 248.

page 9 note 2 In the hypocaust built over the spot is a stone with a pierced arch resembling the recesses allocated for clothing in the apodyterium at Chesters. Dr. Bruce's, Handbook to the Roman Wall, 3rd ed. (1885), p. 99, and plan of similar building at Aesica, Proc. Soc. Antiq., xvii, 32.Google Scholar

page 9 note 3 In the western bath the pavement at the lowest level is of ‘variegated rows (squares) of pebbles and red bricks’ as mentioned by Dr. Lucas.

page 10 note 1 The pattern, if it was alike in both baths, does not agree in design with that shown in V. C. H. Somerset, i, p. 256Google Scholar, fig. 30, and assumed to belong to the western bath.

page 13 note 1 The floor of the basin, which measures about 73 ft. by 29 ft., was of large stones covered with thick lead, in sheets about 10 ft. by 5 ft. bedded in cement. The edges of the sheets were not lapped but merely butted, and were apparently united or run together with a hot tool. It is uncertain whether the steps were covered with lead: the meagre evidence of such does not bear out the theory. One instance of the presence of lead about the steps appears at the north-west angle where is the inlet from the springs, and where a certain provision may have been made, by way of an apron piece, to receive the constant flow of water.

The other fragment of lead above the floor-level is about a fountain placed midway in the length of the north side, and here again the provision seems to be where running water occurs (fig. 3). The fountain is 3 ft. 3 in. by 1 ft. 7 in. on plan by 3 ft. 3 in. in height (fig. 3) adorned with small pilasters and now worn to a rounded shape on top, although once carved with animals (see the Corbridge Lion on coping of a tank, Arch. Ael., 3rd sen, iv, 205). It is pierced by a hole from back to front conceivably to receive a pipe from which water was spurted into a trough or shelf below, and fed from the 2¼ in. lead pipe passing down the northern ambulatory—possibly fresh cold water for the use of the bathers.

The water supply between the springs and the bath was of boxed lead (shown in section fig. 3). The outlet for emptying the bath was by a bronze sluice at the north-east angle of the basin, over which was a grated overflow, both discharging into the great drain.

page 13 note 1 Guide to the Roman Baths at Bath, C. E. Davis, 1890.

page 16 note 1 See Appendix and pl. III.