Journal article
Settlement scaling theory, aqueducts, and the Roman Empire
- Abstract:
- Despite the importance of understanding how ancient cities overcame the demographic, social, and economic constraints imposed by the lack of clean and fresh water, most scholars have been pessimistic about the value of exploring the relationship between the estimated populations of ancient cities and the delivery rates of aqueducts. Here, we draw on settlement scaling theory and use new evidence for the sizes of cities and a new compilation of the capacities of aqueducts, to reveal, for the first time, that there was a systematic relationship between them, with significant implications for our understanding of the functions of structures.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Supplementary materials, pdf, 121.4KB, Terms of use)
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 1.3MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.15184/aqy.2026.10296
Authors
+ British Academy
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- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/0302b4677
- Grant:
- PF2/180110
- Programme:
- British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Journal:
- Antiquity More from this journal
- Volume:
- 100
- Issue:
- 410
- Pages:
- 372-387
- Publication date:
- 2026-02-18
- Acceptance date:
- 2025-10-02
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1745-1744
- ISSN:
-
0003-598X
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
2299583
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2299583
- Deposit date:
-
2025-10-13
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Hanson et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2026
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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