Much of the European continent has been affected by severe drought in June and July 2015, one of the worst since the drought and heat wave of summer of 2003, according to the latest report by the JRC's European Drought Observatory (EDO). The drought, which particularly affects France, Benelux, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, northern Italy and northern Spain, is caused by a combination of prolonged rain shortages and exceptionally high temperatures.
Satellite imagery and modelling revealed that the drought, caused by prolonged rainfall shortage since April, had already affected soil moisture content and vegetation conditions in June. Furthermore, the areas with the largest rainfall deficits also recorded exceptionally high maximum daily temperatures: in some cases these reached record values.
Another characteristic of this period was the persistence of the thermal anomalies: in the entire Mediterranean region, and particularly in Spain, the heat wave was even longer than that of 2003, with maximum daily temperatures consistently above 30°C for durations of 30 to 35 days (even more than 40 days in Spain).
While sectors such as tourism, viticulture and solar energy benefited from the unusual drought conditions, many environmental and production sectors suffered due to water restrictions, agricultural losses, disruptions to inland water transport, increased wildfires, and threats to forestry, energy production, and human health.
Rainfall is urgently needed in the coming months to offset the negative impacts of the 2015 drought situation. The current seasonal weather forecast envisages more abundant rains for the Mediterranean region in September, but no effective improvement is yet foreseen for parts of western, central and eastern Europe.
An ambitious restoration of a 2000-year-old monument inside the Roman Forum has provoked furious debate among experts about whether Italy is taking the right steps to save its cultural treasures.
Experts are angry about the use of cement to reinforce the seven columns of the Temple of Peace [Credit: Corriere Della Sera]
Archaeologists and art experts are angry about the use of cement to reinforce the seven columns of the Temple of Peace, a landmark built in 75AD by Emperor Vespasian, who also built the Colosseum.
Architect Sandro Maccallini has claimed the restoration includes “a totally fake column, with a fake base, with a fake core and a capital that is probably fake” and the daily Corriere Della Sera has published photos of the materials being used at the site.
The city council’s cultural superintendency is seeking to restore the temple’s seven columns made of the highly prized pink granite which were shipped from the Egyptian city of Aswan during the Roman Empire.
Reinforced concrete is making its entrance to the Roman Forum [Credit: Corriere Della Sera]
“The Roman Forum will lose its identity as an archaeological site, unique in the world, where everything is precious and unique because it is authentic,” Maccalini said in a complaint cited by Corriere della Sera.
Tomaso Montanari, an art expert from Naples, also criticized the project. “You don’t have to be Doctor Freud to understand that the erection of the Temple of Peace’s columns is the result of an archaeology desperate for a pill that will revive it, naturally with the highest media profile.”
But the capital’s cultural superintendency said the decision to use the cement was based on the recommendations of a scientific technical committee, which said it was about “bringing back the ancient artefacts that are in pieces”.
The project aims to raise seven columns of the Temple of Peace, the first two of which should be ready next April 21 [Credit: Corriere Della Sera]
Claudio Parisi Presicce, who heads Rome City Council’s arts and culture department, said the approach was akin to anastylosis, the reinforcement method used to restore the acropolis in Athens.
But Andrea Carandini, who heads Italy’s environment protection group Fondo Ambiente Italiano, said:“I am completely against choices like this. And even the works on the Parthenon are too invasive.”
The fiery debate over the Temple of Peace is the latest to emerge in Italy. Culture minister Dario Franceschini has recently been under fire over plans to restore the Colosseum’s arena for concerts and other performances, causing some critics to dub it the new “Las Vegas”.
Archaeologists working on the Palatine Hill here this summer excavated parts of sixth-century B.C. foundations connected to a sanctuary of a cult that ancient sources trace back to Romulus, Rome’s mythic founder — a rare find from such an early period.
Remains of the Curiae Veteres Sanctuary [Credit: Antonio Ferrandes]
The discovery, archaeologists say, will probably lead to further exploration for even more ancient elements of the sanctuary, called the Curiae Veteres. The remains came to light during a continuing dig of the northeast slope of the hill. The most recent phase of the dig ended last month.
Excavations in Rome have not recovered much from the sixth century B.C., though the city was already an important center then, said Antonio Ferrandes, deputy director of the dig, which was led by La Sapienza University of Rome. “Our archaeological knowledge is very limited” regarding the period, he said.
The Curiae Veteres was among the most important buildings of that time, a place where Romans assembled to worship, and one of the points that defined the Romulean city. Ancient sources recount the tradition that Romulus, said to have founded Rome in 753 B.C., divided the population into 30 curiae, or neighborhoods, much like today’s boroughs.
View of excavations on the Palatine in Rome [Credit: ANSA]
Twice a year in Rome’s early years representatives of the 30 curiae gathered in a banquet hall at the Curiae Veteres until the sanctuary became too small and a new assembly place, also called a curia, was built. Scholars say that representatives from four, or seven — the debate continues — curiae continued to meet at the old sanctuary, hence it is described in the plural form.
The sanctuary, believed to have its roots in the eighth century B.C., was destroyed when fire swept through the city in A.D. 64. It was rebuilt a few years later by the Flavian emperors, and was used until the end of the fourth century, when pagan cults were banned.
“This is a building that was used continuously for some 12 centuries,” said Clementina Panella, an archaeology professor at La Sapienza University of Rome who led the excavation, which this year involved 85 students. The university’s archaeologists had already identified the sanctuary as being on the site, but the two-month dig — which ended in late July — was the first time they were able to directly excavate in the archaic portions.
Part of a sixth-century B.C. cup found in a dig that included the Curiae Veteres in Rome [Credit: Antonio Ferrandes]
“We’re in a city where buildings have undergone continuous modifications,” Ms. Panella said. One excavated section, reached by descending two rickety ladders and nimbly stepping around a well from the sixth century B.C., proffered traces of a fourth century B.C. sewer, the foundations of a temple restored in the first century A.D. by the emperor Claudius, and pilasters from the second century A.D. during the reign of Septimius Severus.
“This city lives on itself,” she said. “It eats itself.”
Ms. Panella has been excavating the Palatine since 1986. Since 2001 the dig has focused on the slope next to the Colosseum, unearthing some of the earliest structures of the ancient city. Four years ago, the team found the remains of a house they believe to be the birthplace of Rome’s first emperor, Augustus. “We didn’t find a plaque that said so, but we’re pretty certain that this is the place, given that ancient sources say he was born near the Curiae Veteres,” Ms. Panella said.
Now that excavations have ended for the summer, government archaeologists will secure the site and some parts will eventually be accessible to the public.
Ms. Panella hopes to continue excavating the site next year. “There’s still the seventh, eighth, ninth centuries to dig to, as long as we can do so safely,” she said. “Will we get to Romulus?” She added, with a smile, “I’ll tell you next year.”
