Scientists in France may be hot on the path of a long missing channel Roman More than thousands of years were built while fighting the kills.
The waterway, known as the Marius channel, was built about 2100 years ago inside the Ron River Delta. This was the first major Roman hydraulic feature of what was then, before dams, skills and water channels. According to historical accounts, it was built between 104 and 102 BC by forces Julius CaesarHis uncle, General Jayos Marius. Its construction was aimed at helping efforts in the Simbry wars, a series of conflicts between Romanian Republic and Celtic Tribes, Cimbri and Teutones, which were migrating in the south of Gotland, current Denmark.
At that time, the Roman Republic was protecting its new boycott in Ghoul, an area that covered what is now known as France, Belgium and parts of West Germany. But the infringement of the kilts put that land, as well as the rest of the Roman Republic, in danger.
“The Romanian General Marius came to the south of Gaal in 104 BC to calm down that Simpier, Tutors Gul and Spain would arrive in Italy,” Simon LuchbiA Fakhri Lecturer in the history of the Middle Ages and an expert in South Gul at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, who did not participate in the study, Live Science. “He headed a very large force, and he needed to provide it by sea from Rome.”
Therefore, Marius ordered the channel to build so that he could supply his forces. The mouth of the treacherous Ron River has crossed and tied the city of Ariel to the Mediterranean, allowing the passage of large supply boats. Ultimately, the channel was successful, and the Romans were defeated by Simpier and Tioton in 101 BC, after which the channel was talent in the ally of Rome in the area in the Masalia region, which was now said to Marseille, which was said to have gained great revenues from its commercial use before the channel disappeared from the historical record at a later time.
“Despite all the research conducted in recent centuries, the Marius Channel has not been found,” a major study author Joe JunkerThe geyreming specialist at Strasbourg University in France told direct sciences in an email. It was last mentioned by the Roman author Blini, the eldest in the first century AD, but its effects disappeared.
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Find the channel
In 2013, a geophysical survey of Delta in the September -southern swamps of Vegayrat revealed directly on the underwater feature that scientists assumed could be an old canal. Subsequent excavations About the site, discovered 69 pieces of Roman ceramics, two old wooden risks and two of the two gravel platforms. The history of radioactive carbon dates back From the risks I put them in the first to the fourth century AD, while the organic materials are inside the platforms Dated between the first century BC and the third century AD When Marius channel was used.
Since the site was discovered 12 years ago, researchers have been trying to collect evidence to confirm whether this area has already been hosting the long -term Marius channel.
In the new study, Juncker and his team dug the sediment cores from the old channel and its banks and took physical measurements to compare with the geophysical surveys conducted in 2013.
Jonker said: “The length of the channel, the width, the direction, the content of the depositary and the measurable radial dates confirming that it was a navigable channel in the Roman era, was partially dug in a previous branch of Ron and the ancient lake.”
It usually ranges from 360 to 590 feet (from 110 to 180 meters), while the new analysis shows that the supposed Marius channel is much narrower in about 98 feet (30 meters). This is in line with other Roman channels. This offer would have enabled the large Roman ships to move in the region, according to the authors in the study, published in the April issue of Archaeological Science Magazine: Reports.
Logby said that the new research strengthens the issue that there is a channel here. “It is another indication of the Roman ability to visualize and do large infrastructure projects, despite the relative technological restrictions.”
Both future archaeological discoveries in the future will establish whether the channel is Marius. Specifically, they hope that the excavations will discover the ligament (landing platforms of ships) or tracks (waterways where animals will respond boats), which may help confirm the use of the channel and the duration of their use.
“Geological science is a science full of capabilities, but we must keep in mind that, without confirmation of archaeological studies, we cannot attribute this channel to Marius at the present time,” Jonker said. The search there is continuing.
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