Viticulture in the Laetanian Region (Spain) during the Roman Period: Predictive Modelling and Geomatic Analysis

Abstract

Geographic information system (GIS)-based predictive modelling is widely used in archaeology to identify suitable zones for ancient settlement locations and determine underlying factors of their distribution. In this study, we developed predictive models on Roman viticulture in the Laetanian Region (Hispania Citerior-Tarraconensis), using the location of 82 ancient wine-pressing facilities or torcularia as response variables and 15 topographical and 6 socio-economic cost distance datasets as predictor variables. Several predictor variable subsets were selected either by expert knowledge of similar studies or by using a semi-automatization algorithm based on statistical distribution metrics of the input data. The latter aims at simplifying modelling and minimizing the necessity of a priori knowledge. Both approaches predicted the distribution of archeological sites sufficiently well. However, the best prediction performance was obtained by an expert knowledge model utilizing a predictor variable combination based on recommendations on viticulture by Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, the prominent ancient Roman agronomist. The results indicate that the accessibility of a location and its connectivity to trade routes and distribution centres, determined by terrain steepness, was decisive for the settlement of viticultural facilities. With the knowledge gained, the ancient cultivated area and number of wine-pressing facilities needed for processing the vineyard yields were extrapolated for the entire study region.

The LiguSTAR Project: Archaeological Survey Techniques as Applied to the Study of Roman Settlement on the Riverbanks of the Lacus Ligustinus (Southwest Spain)

“…Frequently it involved intensive cash crops, such as olive and vine cultivation. Therefore, different researchers have conducted studies on the settlement patterns through extensive landscape surveys in Italy: the Tiber Valley Project-Rome hinterland (Lazio) (Goodchild 2007;Patterson et al 2020); the Potenza Valley Project (Macerata Marches) (Vermeulen et al 2017); and the Sarno River Valley Project (Pompeii hinterland, Campania) (Vogel et al 2016;Seiler et al 2019), as well as the the Laetanian region studies (Northeast Spain) (Martín i Oliveras and Revilla 2019; Stubert et al 2020). All of these offer methodological and theoretical research approaches that are relevant to our project.…”

Geomatic Tools in Agricultural Management

“…Different geomatic tools, such as geographic information systems (GIS), are used in agricultural management, which analyze large amounts of spatial data on various topics [5,6]. For example, with other technological tools, GIS analyses the space-time of land use and land cover by agricultural activity [7].…”

Integration of Remote Sensing Data into a Composite Voxel Model for Environmental Performance Analysis of Terraced Vineyards in Tuscany, Italy

“…In the context of viticulture, geospatial analysis methods have been applied to detect terraced landscapes from digital elevation models (DEMs) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data [9]. Stubert et al integrated expert knowledge with geospatial analysis methods for studying the distribution of ancient wine-pressing facilities of Roman viticulture using predictive computational modelling [10]. The role of terraced landscapes in preventing soil degradation [11] and the negative impact of land abandonment and degradation have been studied [12].…”