Carthage Used Liquid Cooling for Chariots and Horses

New research into the ancient city of Carthage’s famous Circus – the site of chariot races within the ruins of the North African metropolis – has revealed a simple but innovative way to keep chariots cool.

Carthage, which came startlingly close to defeating Rome for primacy during ancient times thanks in no small part to the heroics of Hannibal, one of its most gifted military leaders, had much in common with Rome. Carthaginians and Romans alike had a fervent obsession for watching chariot races; the Circus of Carthage was the largest sporting arena outside Rome for the purpose.

However, the North African climate is much more hot and arid than it is in southern Europe. Archaeologists have wondered for years how the Carthaginians could have kept their chariots – and the horses that pulled them – from destroying themselves in the baking heat, but the discovery of a cleverly-designed liquid cooling system has uncovered the secrets.

According to an article in Haaretz, water resistant mortar was discovered within the median strip of the circus known as the spina. This hydraulic mortar, created by mixing lime with pulverized and crushed ceramics, was often used in Roman hydraulic engineering, Tübingen University’s Frerich Schön told Haaretz.

The ends of the spina at any circus were often adorned with ornate statues and columns. Archaeologists realized that the spina at the Circus of Carthage had been festooned with water basins, and sprinklers known as sparsores would drop down and dip a clay amphora into each basin in order to sprinkle water on the chariots and their horses as they rounded the corner of the spina, said excavation co-director Dr. Ralf Bockmann.

Water basins appearing at the ends of the spina were apparently a common occurrence, as there have been basins found at the Circus of Maxentius, located on the Via Appia outside Rome. Additionally, Carthaginian mosaics depicting the basins, located on the spina of the Circus, have also been found.

However, the sprinkling of the chariots as they came around the bend would have been a harrowing job. A career as one of the sparsores meant tossing water from amphorae by hand as the chariots screamed around the arena at high speed, usually from the spina itself. It likely would have required careful organization and timing, Bockmann remarked, adding that it undoubtedly would have been a highly dangerous vocation.

The Circus of Carthage was massive in its heyday, as it was at least 500 meters in length according to geophysical surveys undertaken in the 1970s. This is only 80 meters shorter than the Circus Maximus located in the heart of Rome. The Circus Maximus could hold approximately 150,000 spectators at a time, and while Carthage’s chariot ring was slightly smaller, the number of people it could accommodate was also likely to have been quite high.

Bockmann, along with co-leader Dr. Hamden Ben Romdhane from Tunisia’s Institut National du Patrimoine, will be studying the Circus for several more years.

The post Carthage Used Liquid Cooling for Chariots and Horses appeared first on New Historian.