A Lost Roman Canal Julius Caesar’s Uncle Built Might Have Been Found In France
Over two millennia ago, the Romans built a canal while battling the Celts, and scientists in France may have just discovered it. The waterway was called the Marius Canal.
It was built around 2,100 years ago within the Rhône River delta. It was also the first major Roman water hydraulic feature in Gaul, coming before aqueducts, dams, and watermills.
Historical accounts show that the canal was built between 104 and 102 B.C. by the troops of general Gaius Marius, who was Julius Caesar’s uncle.
It was constructed to aid in the Cimbrian Wars, a series of conflicts between the Roman Republic and Celtic tribes, the Cimbri and Teutones.
These tribes were migrating south from modern-day Denmark. At the time, the Roman Republic was focused on protecting its new province in Gaul, a region that is now France, Belgium, and parts of western Germany. The Celts posed a threat to the land and the rest of the Roman Republic.
The Roman general Marius arrived in southern Gaul in 104 B.C. to ward off the Cimbri and Teutones. He led a large army and needed to supply it by sea from Rome.
So, he ordered the canal to be built so it could be used to deliver supplies. It connected the city of Arles to the Mediterranean, allowing for the safe passage of boats.
The canal was successful, and the Romans defeated the Cimbri and Teutones in 101 B.C. Afterward, the canal was gifted to Rome’s ally, the Greek settlement of Massalia (Marseille) in the region.
The settlement earned a lot of revenue from the commercial use of the canal until it disappeared from the historical record a few centuries later.
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The last mention of the canal was by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century A.D. No traces of the canal seemed to be left.
In 2013, a geophysical survey was taken of a delta in the Vigueirat marshes just south of Arles. It revealed an underwater feature that could have been a canal.
Excavations were conducted around the site, unearthing 69 pieces of Roman ceramics, two ancient wooden stakes, and two cobblestone platforms.
The stakes dated back to the 1st to 4th century A.D., while the organic materials within the platforms dated between the 1st century B.C. and the 3rd century A.D. during the use of the Marius Canal.
Since the discovery of the underwater feature, researchers have been trying to figure out if the long-lost Marius Canal was really located in this area.
A team drilled sediment cores and took measurements to make comparisons with the geophysical survey in 2013.
“The canal length, width, orientation, sediment content, and the measured radiocarbon dates confirm that it was a navigable canal in Roman times, partially excavated in a former branch of the Rhône and an ancient lagoon,” said Joé Juncker, the lead author of the study and a geoarchaeologist at the University of Strasbourg in France.
The new research indicates that a canal did exist there, but whether it was the Marius Canal is still up in the air. The study was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
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