Gis and Roman Ways Research in Hispania. Abstract
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GIS and roman ways research in Hispania José Luis Vicente González GIS AND ROMAN WAYS RESEARCH IN HISPANIA. José Luis Vicente González Forestry engineer. GIS consultant Milles de la Polvorosa (Zamora, SPAIN). [email protected] ∗ Translation from the original Spanish text made by the author with the invaluable help of Google Translator. If you can understand without trouble the content of the communication, thank the technicians from Google; otherwise, download the blame on the speaker and its pitiful knowledge of English grammar. ** This paper was excerpted from a longer article published in the Proceedings of the “Tenth International Conference of Hispanic Roads", held in Madrid in June 2010. The original text (in Spanish) is available in the next URL: http://www.jlvg.es/Publicaciones.asp ABSTRACT Geographic Information Systems are a very powerful tool to explore the configuration of the existing road network in times past, but the possibilities in this sense hardly been exploited so far. The communication is intended to describe a GIS project specifically designed to investigate the development of road network in the western Northern Plateau of Spain during the Ancient Age. In the first part of the same, details the project structure and the content and usefulness of the different layers of information in it. Finally, we discuss the results to the present time by the research, including the location of the paths of the main Roman routes that defined the current province of Zamora and neighboring areas, the situation of the mansiones and mutationes that mark out the roads, and the location of the main quarries used to build them. KEYWORDS: GIS, roman ways, Antonino Itinerary, Hispania, west of Castile and León. 1. Introduction. The study of the communication network implemented by Rome in Hispania is offered as a fascinating research topic, among other interesting aspects, the projection that the infrastructure would have on the future of the territories where they displayed two millennia ago. The cornerstone of which is the starting point for the study of the Roman road network in any of the current countries that once formed part of the Latin world, has always been a paper entitled ITINERARIUM ANTONINI AUGUSTI PROVINCIARUM, more commonly known as the name of Antonino Itinerary. In order to clarify for readers less familiar with the study of the Roman road network the content and scope of the information collected in the Antonino Itinerary, basic documentary source of information for our work, is included below a brief text of Dr. Blázquez Martínez where clarify the issues discussed. ESRI European User Conference 2011. Madrid (Spain), October 26-28, 2011. 1 | P age GIS and roman ways research in Hispania José Luis Vicente González "The Antonino Itinerary is the most important document on Spanish roads in Roman times. Presumably, this Antonino is the emperor Caracalla, because the tracks layout of Britain can’t be earlier than the 53-54 years of this emperor. This allocation is arbitrary, since some of the data referred to this Route are a hundred years later. It is thought that the original of this document can be traced to the second century AD, on the reign of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, and would have undergone a merger, constant tweaks and additions in the fourth century. The most authoritative opinions date the originals in the early years of Emperor Diocletian, in the late 280 AD. Among researchers there is a widespread perception that the itinerary is a kind of guide or official record of the Roman Empire roads; according to others opinions, is a list of mansiones in relation to the collection of Annona. This hypothesis is based on the fact that for some provinces such as Hispania, Gaul and Britain, the routes leading to the legionary camps, in the case of Spain to the camp of Legio VII Gemina (León). More than an official document, it’s like a private relationship related with the army, the mail services or the public works. Some argue that the itinerary is a 'library work', a compilation of several documents. It is, in any case, a unique document about the geography of Roman times, with precise description of roads and routes. The schematic drawing of the work is simple: the Itinerary lists the general heading of a particular road, the point of departure and arrival and the total number of miles, to what follows the enumeration of the intermediate distance between FIG 1: ANTONINO ITINERARY: mansiones. In Hispania describes 34 routes, but omits some EDITION OF 1656. important roads known to milestones. The Itinerary presents the Spanish roman road network like a backbone similar to a cross, with roads that cross the entire territory of the Iberian Peninsula, linking the main roman domain centers. Three roads that enter through the Pyrenees leads to the camp of Legio VII Gemina, two others arrive to Arturica Augusta and Castulo, major mining centers" (BLÁZQUEZ MARTÍNEZ J. M.: "Vías e itinerarios: de la antigüedad a la Hispania romana", en ABÁSOLO J.A. (ed.), Viaje por la historia de nuestros caminos, Madrid 1997, 5-67). To date, most of researchers thought that the information contained in the Antonino Itinerary, suffered from repeated and serious errors, that prevented use this font to rebuild, with a minimum accuracy, of many of the routes that collects. According to our research, supported by use of GIS technology, this assumption is wrong, and the distances between mansiones that have preserved the Itinerary seem to be almost always correct or to have minimal deviations from reality. The geographical area where he focuses the study includes the west of the northern plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, which belongs administratively to the autonomous community of Castile and León. This community, with total area 94,223 km2, is the largest region of Spain and third in the European Union. Castile and León preserves for just over 60% of total cultural heritage of Spain, which includes the highest concentration of Romanesque art in the world. The GIS project that supports the study extends its coverage throughout all the territory of Castilia and León. ESRI European User Conference 2011. Madrid (Spain), October 26-28, 2011. 2 | P age GIS and roman ways research in Hispania José Luis Vicente González 2. Description of the GIS project. The software used for to tackle this study, which began in 2006, includes version 9.3.1 of the ArcGIS application, in their ArcEditor license, and the two extensions: Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst, especially focused on the management of digital models elevation and its derivatives (slope maps, hypsometric models, 3D visualization, etc.), and other information in raster format. The base map of the geodatabase designed to address the research project, integrates the 851 National Topographic Map digital sheets at 1/25.000 (MTN25) corresponding to Community of Castile and León, in both raster and vector modes (BCN25). The MTN25 is a product developed by the National Geographic Institute (IGN), which is distributed through the National Center for Geographic Information (CNIG). The design of the data base vector map 1:25,000 (Fig. 2) is based on the BTN25 structure, prepared and published by IGN in 2009 (v 1.0, 28/05/2009). This structure includes 10 tracks that are subdivided into categories and types of cartographic elements, whose complexity varies according to the attributes defined in each item. The project geodatabase organizes basic mapping territorial in 10 Features Data Set, and 35 files or Feature Class, which are stored in each Feature Data Set according to the existing thematic similarities. In the geodatabase were defined 72 unique values domains for basic mapping, which correspond to the attributes described in the BTN25 Data Model. In each data file were created two fields called Subtype and Domain. In the first of these, we set default values and domains. The Domain field store the valid attributes to be placed in the registers of the table. FIG 2: 1:25,000 SCALE TOPOGRAPHIC BASE MAP DATA MODEL. ESRI European User Conference 2011. Madrid (Spain), October 26-28, 2011. 3 | P age GIS and roman ways research in Hispania José Luis Vicente González Has been added a third field to each file named Name to store the identification of the different spatial elements or entities, such as river names, names of towns, names of highways, roads, etc. FIG. 3: THE PROJECT LOADED IN ARCMAP 9.3.1. Vector data stored in the geodatabase also includes several layers of thematic mapping, whose components most relevant to the aim of the project are described briefly below. Geological Mapping: The geological information is very useful for the study of the Roman road network, as it is an essential support to identify corridors through which run the roads and for locate possible quarries used in its construction. In our case, we chose load in our project the geological map prepared by Geological Survey of Spain (IGME) in the framework of initiative GEODE. The Plan GEODE is the institutional support for the generation of a geological continuous detailed map of Spain. Geological mapping of each region GEODE has his fundamental reference in information provided for the national geological map 1:50,000 scale. For the generation of the different regions GEODE, also used contributions from other sources, among which is obligatory mentioned the 1:25,000 topographic base map of IGN reworked specifically for the plan, geological mapping at other scales, geological mapping of local coverage, provincial coverage and regional coverage, the maps derived from synthesis, and doctoral theses and other documentation from publications, reports and books. The project GEODE has its own data model, very well systematized, in ArcGIS format.