Heavy ropes hauling water ground deep grooves right through the stone over the centuries. The inscription reads: "the holy ones surround the mouth of the well as the orb turns". Fortune's wheel throws one god down and raises another, but the holy ones continue to surround the mouth of the well.
The ALT text for this photo:
Pagan temples were closed in the C4, but the practice of drawing water from this natural filter carried on for 500 years until Otto III built the church. To preserve the well shaft, medieval builders hollowed out a piece of ancient spolia and carved it with Christ and the saints.
The ALT text for this photo:
Set into the presbytery steps of S. Bartolomeo all’Isola is a C10 Romanesque wellhead, an ancient column drum. Beneath the floor, the well's opus quadratum construction dates back to the C3 BCE, which places it at the heart of the ancient temple of Aesculapius. #SpoliaSunday
Yesterday we looked at the middle-class way of life in #Ostia, and today its way of death. This harbour #sarcophagus features cargo ships and a lighthouse, but the husband and wife have unfinished heads. Did a sudden C3 crisis freeze the commission? #SarcophagusSaturday #AncientBluesky 🏺
