A puteal was a classical wellhead, round or sometimes square, set round a well

Water well

A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...

 opening to keep people from falling in. Such well heads (putealia) might be of marble, enriched with bas-reliefs. Famous examples include the Puteal Scribonianum

Puteal Scribonianum

The Puteal Scribonianum or Puteal Libonis was a structure in the Forum Romanum in Ancient Rome...

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The word is also used of circular classical remains recycled

Spolia

Spolia is a modern art-historical term used to describe the re-use of earlier building material or decorative sculpture on new monuments...

 as well-heads after antiquity, such as the Guildford Puteal at the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

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See also

• Fons
  Fontus
  In ancient Roman religion, Fontus or Fons was a god of wells and springs. A religious festival called the Fontinalia was held on October 13 in his honor. Throughout the city, fountains and wellheads were adorned with garlands.Fons was the son of Juturna and Janus...
  
  , the ancient Roman god of fountains and wellheads
• Roman aqueduct
  Roman aqueduct
  The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to serve any large city in their empire, as well as many small towns and industrial sites. The city of Rome had the largest concentration of aqueducts, with water being supplied by eleven aqueducts constructed over a period of about 500 years...