In recent decades, there has been a considerable growth of scientific interest in the question of travel and mobility in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. As far as the southern Levant is concerned, this interest has yielded much research about travel and mobility in Late Antique Palestine (including the Roman imperial road network), leaving the question of pre-Roman travel and mobility a much-understudied field of study. However, recent archaeological discoveries have revolutionized our state of knowledge about material remains of pre-Roman roads, which were once believed to not have been preserved. Namely, remains of several pre-Roman roads have been discovered on the ground in modern Jordan and Israel: the Aroer Ascent, “Glueck’s Road,” Naqeb Dahal, the Wadi Zarqa-Main road, the Callirrhoe–Machaerus road, and the Masada–Hebron road. In this context, the aim of this paper was, first, to study the spatial and archaeological features of the archaeologically attested ancient pre-Roman roads, and second, to evaluate all of the available types of remote data as tools serving in the detection of artifacts (especially archival cartographic, aerial, and satellite data; archaeological data; and least-cost simulations of Geographic Information Systems [GIS]). As a result, several conclusions are suggested. First, old topographic maps are a very promising source of data for potential new discoveries since they contain both explicit and implicit hints at the existence of ancient roads. Second, information about archaeological data and the Roman imperial road network may also offer important reference points if the quality of databases is improved in the future. Third, the use of GIS simulations based on 30 m digital elevation models has very substantial limitations. In particular, the use of least cost paths and corridors for simulating short-distance travel has turned out to be fruitless. At the same time, the use of least cost corridors for predicting long-distance travel offers some promising results.
The presented research concerning the landscape evolution of the area of the Kazimierski Landscape Park assumed the analysis of landscape changes that took place in the western part of the Nałęczów Plateau in eastern Poland as a result of increased anthropopressure. To achieve this goal, the diverse data was employed: archives of the “Archeological Survey of Poland” obtained from the National Heritage Board of Poland, the registry data from the 16th century made available as part of the “Atlas Fontium” project elaborated by the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, old map of the Western Galicia from 1808, a tactical map of the Military Geographical Institute in Warsaw from 1937, and the “Topographic Objects Database” (BDOT10k) obtained from the Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography. Based on the analysed data, maps presenting the development of the settlement network from the moment of permanent settlement of the area up to the present state and maps showing the changes in land use in the Kazimierski Landscape Park over the last centuries have been designed. The results of historical and geographical analyses carried out as part of the research were compared with the results of geomorphological research conducted in the studied area. Verification of the obtained results allowed to determine the scope in which man influenced the evolution of the landscape of the analysed area, including its diversification depending on the historical period and the type of the economy. The process of georeferencing the map of Western Galicia elaborated by colonel A.M. von Heldensfeld from 1808 and the tactical map 1:100,000 of Military Geographical Institute from 1937 covering the research area (14,974 ha) was carried out in the ArcGIS Desktop software. The calibration process was evaluated in the Map Analyst program which makes it possible to analyze the distortions of old maps. Then, vectorization of selected terrain coverage classes and visualization of spatial data were conducted. This way, the land use maps were analyzed in terms of environmental changes that occurred over the past centuries by identifying the areas with the largest development changes. The obtained results were compared with the database of historical objects created for the purposes of this research, based on data provided by the National Heritage Board of Poland and the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences in order to determine the development trends of the settlement network in the region. The additional statistical analysis made it possible to determine the trend of changes and to interpret the distribution of areas threatened by the occurrence of mass movements with the analyzed anthropogenic determinants.
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