Roman sampietrini are moving

Sampietrini on Roman streets - time to remove?

Sampietrini is the typical kind of pavement found in Rome and several other cities in Italy. It is made of beveled stones of black basalt ("sampietrini"), placed one next to the other. The earliest examples were made by trimming large blocks that had been used in ancient Roman roads, discovered during fifteenth- and sixteenth-century archaeological excavations. The first documented use in Rome of "sampietrini" stones was during the reign of Pope Pius V (1566-72).

The name sampietrini, (also known as sanpietrini) comes from the name of the maintenance workers who used to take care of Saint Peter’s basilica’s furnishing and decorations. The Vatican artisans and tradesmen were known as ‘sampietrini’ (or sanpietrini), little Saint Peters, the children of Saint Peter, who would look after his church and his legacy. They employed the services of the selciaroli, the ancient guild of stonecutters to cover Piazza San Pietro with cobblestones. The stones, like the caretakers of the church, were known as “sampietrini”, the children of St Peter. The name stuck. Over the next two centuries, the stones were used to pave all the main streets of Rome, because this mode was superior to brick, for example by providing a stronger surface for carriages, among other reasons.

Sampietrini are common in Rome also because they adapt perfectly to the ground’s shape and, being of solid volcanic rock, can withstand heavy loads of traffic. However, the stones don't absorb as much reverberation as asphalt, aggravating the structural risks to nearby buildings – not to mention the noise pollution – when heavy vehicles drive over them. The bone-rattling vibrations are thought to be among the reasons why some Roman buses spontaneously burst into flames, since all that jiggling is liable to shake wires loose and start sparks. Roman drivers have a love-hate relationship with the basalt cobblestones, which, although characteristic of the city, are dangerous for motorini - particularly in the rain - as well as being bumpy to drive over in cars and buses.

A pile of sampietrini 

So now, Rome mayor Virginia Raggi has announced that Rome's traditional cobblestones or sampietrini are to disappear from 68 streets in the center, including several thoroughfares with heavy traffic, as part of a program of major infrastructure works this year. In the case of Via IV Novembre the sampietrini in the central part of the road will be replaced by asphalt, a "surface more suitable for the transit of scooters, bicycles and public transport", with the cobblestones left at the sides of the roadway as "historical evidence." Roadworks are also set to be carried out in Piazza Venezia, where the sampietrini will be retained, reports Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

The roads that will lose their cobbles include Via Nazionale, which runs between Piazza della Repubblica near Termini train station to Piazza Venezia, and Viale Aventino, the wide boulevard that passes by the Circo Massimo and Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters. The sampietrini removed will be laid in 113 pedestrian streets such as Via dei Condotti and Via del Corso, both busy shopping streets near the Spanish Steps.

The city is practically deserted in terms of traffic, which in theory will favor the program of roadworks however, it is unclear whether the coronavirus will affect the time-line of the scheduled works.

The idea of getting rid of Rome's sampietrini isn't new: in 2005 the then mayor declared that the stones, a trademark of the city since the 16th century, would be phased out everywhere except pedestrian-only streets, though the roadworks required proved slow to emerge. Authorities have long complained that the blocks are too expensive to maintain and replace, while the serciaroli specialized in laying them are ever harder to find.

Rome's Piazza Navona, one of the most beautiful squares in the city, is slowly turning green due to the lack of foot traffic from tourists and Romans during the coronavirus quarantine.

Rome newspaper Il Messaggero has published photographs, by Daniele Leone, showing grass growing in between the sampietrini cobblestones in the piazza, as the capital enters the fourth week of lockdown.

New surprise from Rome's Metro excavations

Planks from ancient villa in Rome started life in eastern France

       

The construction of Rome’s new Metro line continues to unearth clues and artifacts from the ancient past. This example from articles in The Economist, on Dec 5, 2019, and Science Daily, is one of the latest fascinating additions to the story. 

Oak planks, once part of the portico of a property just outside Imperial Rome, travelled a long way before the builders got their hands on them. The science of dating trees by looking at their growth rings is now so good that Mauro Bernabei of Italy’s National Research Council and his colleagues were able to say, in a paper just published in PLOS One, where the trees that provided the planks had grown, and when they were cut. Rings’ thicknesses are affected by the local climate. Comparison with samples of known origin showed that the trees grew in what is now eastern France, and were felled between 40 and 60 AD. That speaks of a sophisticated timber trade, which floated the logs down the Saône and Rhône to the Mediterranean, and thence to the Eternal City.

Map showing important roads across Europe 2,000 years ago. The red dot shows where the trees have been traced to. The numbered areas represent important regions at the time. Bernabei at al., 2019

The timber requirements of ancient Rome were immense and complex, with different types of trees from various locations around the Roman Empire and beyond used for many purposes, including construction, shipbuilding and firewood. Unfortunately, the timber trade in ancient Rome is poorly understood, as little wood has been found in a state adequate for analysis. In this study, Bernabei et al successfully date and determine the origin and chronology of unusually well-preserved ancient Roman timber samples.

The twenty-four oak timber planks (Quercus species) analyzed in this study were excavated during Metro construction in Rome during 2014-2016. They formed part of a Roman portico in the gardens of via Sannio (belonging to what was once a lavishly decorated and rich property). The authors measured the tree-ring widths for each plank and ran statistical tests to determine average chronology, successfully dating thirteen of the planks.
By comparing their dated planks to Mediterranean and central European oak reference chronologies, the authors found that the oaks used for the Roman portico planks were taken from the Jura mountains in eastern France, over 1700km away. Based on the sapwood present in 8 of the thirteen samples, the authors were able to narrow the date these oaks were felled to between 40 and 60 AD and determined that the planks all came from neighboring trees. Given the timber's dimensions and the vast distance it traveled, the authors suggest that ancient Romans (or their traders) likely floated the timber down the Saône and Rhône rivers in present-day France before transporting it over the Mediterranean Sea and then up the river Tiber to Rome, though this cannot be confirmed.
The authors note that the difficulty of obtaining these planks -- which were not specially sourced for an aesthetic function but used in the portico's foundations -- suggests that the logistical organization of ancient Rome was considerable, and that their trade network was highly advanced.

"We were extremely excited...when we discovered the origin of the timber. [We were] very, very surprised. This long transportation [of timber] was not known," Bernabei said. He added that the wood would have had to be moved over land by animals, then across both the Saone and Rhone rivers, then transported across the Mediterranean Sea until reaching the Tiber River and arriving in the center of Rome.

Finding that timber used to build a villa in Rome came from so far away shows the huge logistical and administrative efforts that would have been made to get high-quality construction products for buildings in the capital. "Considering the distances, calculated to be over 1700 km [1056 miles], the timber's dimensions, road transport with all the possible obstacles along the way, floating the timber down rivers and finally shipping it across the sea, the logistic organization of the Romans must have been formidable," they said.

Considering the planks were used in the foundations of the portico, rather than being transported for aesthetic purposes, the researchers say the effort is even more surprising.

Journal Reference:

1. Mauro Bernabei, Jarno Bontadi, Rossella Rea, Ulf Büntgen, Willy Tegel. Dendrochronological evidence for long-distance timber trading in the Roman Empire. PLOS ONE, 2019; 14 (12): e0224077 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224077