Archaeology Magazine - June 1950 - 25

creased somewhat the lateral reach of the windings.
To-day reinforcement of rubble stone and wire netting
discourage the active erosion which gave the river its
ancient nickname of Serra, the saw. The famous "Fiasco" near Stimigliano still holds its narrow barrier
(see Figure 2). In general the river lacks the dead
loops characteristic of most meandering streams, and
has changed its course little since antiquity.
Nor has the character of the banks suffered much
alteration above the outskirts of the Roman city. The
river's tendency to cut deeper has been offset by the
silt with which it built up its bed. Last summer, when
the water was unusually low, the banks rose on either
hand in steep, high slopes thickly overgrown with
thistles, brambles, and scrub willows to a height of
twenty to thirty feet above our heads (Figure 3). In
winter, to judge from the dried mud on the shrubbery,

Fig. 4. The castle which followed us below Orte.
the water level was from six to ten feet higher, and of
course occasional floods overtop the banks and restore
the lower valley to its ancient appearance of a lake.
However, the nature of the cover shows that the banks
are out of water most of the time. In one dreary
stretch near Magliano Sabino the current had scoured
the river sides so violently that only small, quickgrowing weeds were in evidence on flat-topped perpendicular walls of drab clay. Vertical erosion clefts
divided them at intervals to suggest from a distance a
row of dingy freight cars on a siding.
Even there, however, a green island relieves the
scene, and for the most part the river viewed from its
own surface has surprising charm. Its green banks
screen off the monotonous flat fields on either side, its
birds are numerous and vocal, and sudden views of
hills flash into sight when a turn in the channel opens
up a new vista. We found it difficult to judge of our
Summer 1950

Fig. 5. Old print (reproduced from Cozzo, Il
Luogo Primitivo di Roma) showing a device for
towing a boat around a bend, the cleft formed
by a small tributary, and the cone-shaped end of
Soracte in the background.
position with so few landmarks visible above the tree
tops, and we came to realize the importance of certain elevated spots which appear, disappear, and reappear from new angles. Many of these are marked
by ruined towers. One little castle below Orte (Figure 4) played hide and seek around the turns for so
long that it seemed to be following us to Rome. Two
days' experience of th^ game should have made us
learn with less surprise that a farmer near Poggio
Mirteto had sighted us two hours before we reached
his part of the river. By far the most impressive of the
turreted heights are Nazzano and its vis-à-vis Torrita
Tiberina, both perched on craggy hills which rise
abruptly from the Tiber bank.
The first view of^Mt. Soracte on the way downstream was of unforgettable beauty, but unfortunately
it was not to be caught by the camera. Since the river
describes a great curve around that mountain, we were
to see it from many points of view. First, from the
north it shows a triple-pointed ridge, then from the
southeast it appears end on as a tall, sharp cone, and
from the south it again assumes the serrated form familiar from Rome. Its clean-cut limestone mass is
quickly recognized in any of its aspects, and it must
always have been the dominant landmark for a long
distance up and down the valley.
hours together
we floated iri a secluded
For world walled in by the willows, with nothing to
break the stillness except the rush of water under lowhanging branches along the shore, or the rustling and
whiffling of the cattle, white as the clouds among
which they seemed to wander, while they cropped the
dusty leaves at the top of the bank. It was hard to re89

Archaeology Magazine - June 1950

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - June 1950