Hypocaust
Hipocausto (calefacción por suelo radiante)
- Date
- c. 100 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Rome and Campania, Italy
- Credited to
- Gaius Sergius Orata (traditional attribution)
- People
- 👤 Cayo Sergio Orata140 BCE–80 BCE
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A raised floor on brick pillars beneath which hot air from a furnace circulates, with flues in the walls (tubuli). Central heating for baths and villas throughout the Empire.
Korea (ondol) and China (kang) independently developed heated-floor systems at similar or earlier dates.
What it led to
- Public baths with rooms at different temperatures (caldarium, tepidarium)
- Roman habitability in northern Europe and Britain
- Engineering of gas flow and draught, a precedent for central heating
- The culture of bathing as a daily social ritual
Built on
- Standardized fired brickc. 2600 BCE
- Roman aqueduct312 BCE
- Brick kiln
- Roman aqueduct