Workshop: participatory manips, the surveyor and the aqueduct

At the workshop on participatory manips, the surveyor and the aqueduct, held at the Pont du Gard site (left bank, Vers-Pont-du-Gard), visitors handle the groma and the chorobate, the tools once used to lay out the aqueduct.

The groma and the chorobate: two instruments for laying out the aqueduct

Participants discover the scientific instruments that people relied on in Antiquity to work out the route of the aqueduct. The session begins with the layout itself: the groma, a measuring instrument, is used to sight at right angles.

Then, once set up level, the chorobate reveals all its secrets for measuring the slope, in other words the drop in height.

A major construction mission in Nîmes in AD 40

As set out on the papyrus, the brief looks straightforward. All of Gaul is Roman, and Nîmes has a large population. Water is essential there. It is already drawn within the town, but supplying it under pressure would be far more comfortable. Springs lie to the north, and the chests are full of sesterces.

In Ludo, two participatory manips show how the builders of the Nîmes aqueduct used these instruments, two thousand years ago, to lay out a structure fifty kilometres long on a gentle gradient.

A 45-minute session, with paid parking on site

The workshop runs for 45 minutes. Parking on site is charged at €9.