Control, management and exploitation of the territory and its resources in roman Hispania times: from the surveyor model to the cultural landscape.
Objectives
The ongoing project aims to document, investigate and assess the wide variety of territories and landscapes of the Roman provinces of Hispania, ranging from territorial exploitation models to the cultural perception of these spaces.
Based on the knowledge obtained during previous projects, we will deepen the analysis of different peninsular territories by means of new study techniques: landscape archaeology, geo-archaeology, geophysics and archaeo-magnetism, among others. With this, we intend to contribute new data to the knowledge of the forms of exploitation and management of these areas, and from here to reevaluate and reconsider the categories used by the surveyors in the description of the Roman territory, analyzing concepts such as the ager divisus et adsignatus or the ager arcifinius, and contrast them with specific examples of Hispanic landscapes.
Precedents
Our research team already has a long and proven experience in the study of the ancient landscapes of Roman Hispania. These date back to the successive projects led by Professor Alberto Prieto Arciniega since the late 80s of the last century, which in recent years have been continued by Professor Oriol Olesti, who since 2014 leads the team with two MINECO projects completed. The approach of all the projects undertaken is based on the analysis of ancient landscapes from a historical, archaeological and heritage perspective. In the previous research project, Landscapes of Roman Hispania (2): resource management models in a provincial framework in transition (II ane-V dne) (HAR2017-87488-R), considerable progress was made in the study of various territories-types following our methodology.
Starting hypothesis
The new project underway proposes to contrast the models of Roman occupation and territorial exploitation, defined in previous research, with the surveyor’s operational categories. This is intended to verify the validity of the data from the surveyors for the understanding of the documented territorial and historical phenomena. The models that we have been able to identify show a remarkable coherence over three distinct periods: 1.- 200 BC – 50 AD; 2.- 50-250 AD; and 3.- 250-500 AD. It is worth noting the special interest that the new project proposal has in opening this perspective also to the Late Antique period, both at the level of territorial evolution (with a complex volume of archaeological and historical data not always easy to interpret), as well as of theoretical models.
From these coordinates, the project intends to continue contributing to a better understanding of ancient Hispanic landscapes, to their historical study, and to their protection and patrimonial valorization by contrasting them with interpretative models on the management of resources and populations in Roman times. A better knowledge of these territories, true cultural landscapes, will also allow them to be enhanced, with the consequent protection and enjoyment by local communities and institutions.
The Roman landscapes we work with must be the object of study, essential to understand their historical significance, protection – therefore, location and delimitation – and finally valorization. We must remember that the landscape, that is, the projection on the territory of the various social forms of production, constitutes a key document for the study of ancient societies. In turn, these landscapes constitute the record of the historical, social and environmental changes suffered by the communities that inhabited them, giving rise to true “cultural landscapes”. As historical documents, they should be the object of study, protection and valorization.
Towards new approaches
Some aspects of our project can also be linked to other priorities linked to the digital world (creation of digital models of ancient landscapes, digitization and transfer of results) and even to climate studies (geoarchaeological and ancient landscape analysis). In this line, it should not be forgotten that research in the Social Sciences and Humanities is undergoing a major transformation associated with the digitization of science, its methods, processes, data and image processing, as well as the incorporation of experimental technologies, as is the case, for example, in studies on the conservation of cultural heritage.