At this site, the valorisation and protection of the ancient landscape has been undertaken by addressing the archaeological sites together with those rural, road or landscape structures that define and constitute the cultural landscape. This includes the fossil structures of the centuriationes (orthogonal divisions of the countryside), Roman roads, salt pans and ancient hydraulic systems, as well as cultivated land. To advance research, archaeological prospecting and/or probing campaigns are to be carried out in the vicinity of Astigi, where significant progress is expected.
They should move in the direction of advancing the study of typical Hispanic territories (indicative of diverse and complementary models of occupation and organisation) and their changes throughout the Roman period, in contrast to the survey sources. The civitates astigitana occupies a significant place in this type of studies, thanks to the abundant documentation and archaeological experience that we possess about it. Therefore, in the future, the project intends to resume the archaeological and archaeomorphological analysis of the territory. The fact of acting on a territory such as that of ancient Astigi, with a long tradition of archaeological and archaeomorphological studies, will provide our team with the opportunity to deepen our knowledge of a new and important Roman colonial territory, in this case located in the Guadalquivir valley, and to contrast it once again with the theoretical model of territorial division used by Roman surveyors and agronomists for its verification.
Concrete actions
At present our projects are progressing in the identification of stationes, close to summer grazing areas, which seem to correspond to a network of control routes and access to the pastures. We believe it can be linked to the ager scripturarius system, i.e. publicly owned pastures. In any case, the comparison of these data with literary and historical sources will allow us to define local livestock farming models, which can be linked to a more general model in the pasture areas of the colonies.
As far as agricultural activity is concerned, we will focus our efforts on the study of viticulture and oil production, since the territory of Astigi There are abundant amphorae potteries (including Las Delicias and Huerta de las Delicias, among others), as well as studies on the interesting Balmaseda salt mines in the territory of Astigi, with a long tradition of exploitation from Roman times to the present day. This tradition documents a form of exploitation of the territory that is particularly relevant in the Ecijan territory.