Roman Wooden Pipes Discovered in Belgium – History Blog

A rare surviving woodpipe dated back to the Roman Empire was found in Leuven, Belgium. It dates back to the 1st to 3rd centuries AD and was the first Roman Wooden Pipe ever made in Flanders.

The pipeline was found during excavations before the construction of a new student residence.

Archaeologists suddenly encountered water pipes. “We have found the Roman cultural layer,” said project leader Ben van Genechten. “This is covered by old river sediments. Below this we find another layer from the Roman period where we find fragments of roof tiles and pottery.”

“Below these two levels, we also see various canals,” Van Genechten explained. “It was in one of the canals that we found a trunk. At first, we didn’t really know what it meant, but when we saw other trunks lying around, we realized it was a very old water pipe.”

Leuven was a diverticulum in the Roman period, a small settlement with only a few houses and farms at the intersection. It is on a military road associated with Via Belgica, the main Roman road connecting Cologne and Boulogne-Sur-Mer. The intersection is located near what is now Blauwe Hoek rondabout on Brusselselsestraat. During the Roman period, this place was Ford on the River Deer. The distance from the river is the reason why wooden water pipes are stored in anaerobic puddle soil for 2,000 years.

The Roman discoveries were previously made in the Brusselsestraat region, but they were always small pieces of pottery or gravel, not intact, made of wood. The evidence of the discovery of the water pipes suggests that the diverticulum is large enough to assess a large amount of water supply infrastructure.

Now, the pipeline will be moved to the conservation laboratory for further research and analysis. Archaeologists will collect wood samples for dendritic chronology analysis, and then freeze-dry the entire water pipe for rapid stability. Once dried, it can be placed on a public display.