The Orientation of Roman Camps and Forts

Richardson, Alan

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0092.2005.00244.x

Cited by 9 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The existence of astronomical orientations confirms statements made by many Roman writers themselves, and raises the problem of the symbolic meaning of the castrum layout in the Roman world. Recent investigations have shown a clear tendency for the layouts of Roman camps and forts to be oriented to the cardinal points, which is hardly justifiable on strategic grounds (see Richardson 2005; Peterson 2007; Salt 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, in order to be certain to obtain the desired azimuth (at a fixed amplitude of angle) in tracing the sides of the triangle, the surveyors had to construct a ‘local point grid’ oriented on the cardinal directions. Perhaps some angles with a rational tangent may have been preferred to others for symbolic reasons, for instance those corresponding to Pythagorean triangles. This idea has already been proposed for military camps (Richardson 2005) and certainly deserves further study in the case of towns as well, but more accurate measurements would be required in addition to larger samples of data. As far as the techniques for finding the meridian are concerned, it looks quite probable that these were solar‐based and made use of the bisection of the angle formed by the shadows of a post ( gnomon ) at symmetrical hours of the day. Indeed, techniques based on the stars 1 usually lead to orientations much more accurate than those documented in the Roman world so far. For the sake of completeness, a brief comment might be in order about the possibility of lunar orientations, although this kind of orientation is never documented in the existing texts.…”

Section: The Orientation Of 38 Roman Towns In Italymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Perhaps some angles with a rational tangent may have been preferred to others for symbolic reasons, for instance those corresponding to Pythagorean triangles. This idea has already been proposed for military camps (Richardson 2005) and certainly deserves further study in the case of towns as well, but more accurate measurements would be required in addition to larger samples of data.…”

Section: The Orientation Of 38 Roman Towns In Italymentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Orientation of Roman Towns in Italy

Magli

2008

Oxford J Archaeology

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As is well known, several Roman sources report on the existence of a town foundation ritual, inherited from the Etruscans, which allegedly included astronomical references. However, the possible existence of astronomical orientations in the layout of Roman towns has never been tackled in a systematic way. As a first step in this direction, the orientation of virtually all Roman towns in Italy (38 cities) is studied here. Non-random orientation patterns emerge from these data, aiming at further research in this field. The planning of a Roman townDuring the republican period and the first imperial period (roughly from the V century b.C. to the I century a.D.) the Romans founded many towns, or colonies. The foundation of a town was an efficient method in order to establish permanent control on a newly conquered land, and a consistent amount of people (up to 5000 families) was assigned to the new towns in accordance with a legal act called deductio. The urban plan of the settlements was always the same: the layouts of the newly founded towns were indeed planned in accordance with the so called castrum (i.e. military camp) structure.1 A colony could also be deducted "on" a pre-existing, non-Roman town, either conquered or allied; also in this case however, the layout was usually re-designed in accordance with the Roman standards (see e.g. Sommella 1988). The city boundaries of a castrum town formed a rectangle, usually not very stretched in one direction or the other, so that we can refer generally to this kind of town planning as to a squared one. The rectangle was delimited by the walls and the internal streets were organized in a orthogonal grid forming the inhabited quarters (insulae). As is well known, orthogonal town planning -which has been a common feature of many cultures, for instance the Hindu one -was theorized in the classical world by the Greek architect Hippodamus of Miletus around the half of the V century, and applied strictly in all Greek colonies (Castagnoli 1971). Beyond any doubts it was applied by the Etruscans as well, as it is shown by the excavations at Misa, the unique known Etruscan town which was conquered by the Celts and abandoned before the Roman expansion (Mansuelli 1965). Some authors believe that the Etruscans simply copied the orthogonal plan from the Greeks, but in any case it is reasonable to think that the Romans inherited the orthogonal layout from the Etruscans, rather than from the Greeks. In addition to the orthogonal layout however, the inspiring principle of the Roman castrum was based on the existence of two main orthogonal roads, called cardus and decumanus. Thus, in Roman towns, the orthogonal layout was actually quadripartite: at the end of the four main roads, four main gates were located, while the centres of the social and religious life (the Forum and the main temple or Capitolium, respectively) were preferably placed at (or near) the intersection of the main roads (see e.g. Rykwert 1999). To fix ideas about a Roman castrum town, we can look at Fig. 1, where, as an ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Orientation Of 38 Roman Towns In Italymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Orientation Of 38 Roman Towns In Italymentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Orientation of Roman Towns in Italy

Magli

2008

Oxford J Archaeology

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“…This is a critique of a recent contribution to these pages, concerning the orientation of Roman camps and forts (Richardson 2005). In earlier articles, Richardson has proposed that centuriation existed in the Inglewood Forest of Cumbria (Richardson 1982; 1986; 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Random Orientation of Roman Camps

Peterson¹

2007

Oxford J Archaeology

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An article on the orientation of Roman camps and forts, published in this journal, based its conclusions on faulty statistical analysis. Its only verifiable claim is that the surveyors of Roman camps seem to have preferred orientations within ten degrees of the meridian. Its other claims are not supported. The supposed anomalies of orientation do not need to be explained.introduction This is a critique of a recent contribution to these pages, concerning the orientation of Roman camps and forts (Richardson 2005). In earlier articles, Richardson has proposed that centuriation existed in the Inglewood Forest of Cumbria (Richardson 1982; 1986; 1999). This hypothesis, although not conclusively proved, is credible. Examination of known Roman features in the area (Peterson 2001) suggests that the hypothetical land division may indeed be the partial expression of a large multipurpose land survey.Richardson's recent article claims that the orientation to north of a camp or fort is often the result of a planned relationship. This idea is attractive. If true, it could support the reality of the Inglewood centuriation. It would also support a general theory of Roman oblique planning. This theory derives from my own study of relative angles in Roman survey grids (Peterson 1988; 1992). Simplified in the extreme, it suggests that roads within the grids were often planned by a 'join the dots' approach, where the intersections of the grid are the dots. This naturally results in lines whose slopes, relative to the grid, can be expressed by simple ratios, such as 1:1, 1:2, 2:3, etc. As Richardson says, these are the tangents of the relative angles. It is the presence of angles that have tangents like this -the ratio of small whole numbers -which could be seen as an indication that this sort of planning had taken place.Statistical analysis is extremely important to Richardson's argument. His hypothesis depends on establishing the fact that some particular orientations were chosen in a non-random way. This presents a problem because, even at first glance, the analysis seems flawed. I have no objection in principle to many of the ideas in the article, but have to ask if its claims are really supported by the observations. the chi square test -minimum bin sizesThe first part of Richardson's analysis is intended to show that some orientations of a set of camps occur more frequently than would be expected if each were independently chosen at

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“…According to Vitruvius, the directions of these streets was determined after observing the sun. It is still controversial whether such observations were actually performed and whether this could be discerned in present-day Roman remains (Magli 2008, Richardson 2005.…”

Section: Roman Eramentioning

confidence: 99%

The diachronic study of orientations: Mérida, a case study

González-García

Costa-Ferrer

2011

Proc. IAU

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Abstract. The study of orientations is a key ingredient in most archaeoastronomical research. Typically, a number of synchronistic monuments belonging to a given culture or cultural horizon are measured and studied in order to see if they share a similar orientation. If an astronomical orientation appears, we may apply other archaeoastronomical procedures to justify further conclusions.On a few occasions we perform studies that compare, for a given site, monuments of different periods. At most two or three periods are usually compared to verify persistence or to check for evolution in customs of orientation. We argue here that it would also be interesting to study orientations from a diachronic point of view, in order to investigate the persistence/evolution of this particular conception of space through time.Mérida (Extremadura, Spain) and the neighbouring areas present a rich and highly interesting monumental heritage spanning from the Neolithic to the present, with monuments belonging to several different periods and cultures.In the present study we will review the orientation of the monuments in that area. We will present some conclusions on the evolution/persistence of customs of orientation and value the applicability of this method to other areas.

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The Orientation of Roman Camps and Forts

Cited by 9 publications

References 9 publications

On the Orientation of Roman Towns in Italy

On the Orientation of Roman Towns in Italy

Random Orientation of Roman Camps

The diachronic study of orientations: Mérida, a case study

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