Using Archaeological Road Data to Evaluate Limits of Topography on Road Location

The article presents a new methodological approach to understanding (post-dicting) the location of ancient roads based on an inductive topographic analysis of existing road remains. The research is focused on the analysis of a spatially highly precise dataset of Roman roads in the Near East, using s...

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Autor: Pazout, Adam|||0000-0001-7745-5634
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:326480
Acesso em linha:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/326480
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1007/s10816-026-09766-4
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Cost functions
Least cost path
Movement corridors
Near East
Roman roads
Topographic variables
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spelling Using Archaeological Road Data to Evaluate Limits of Topography on Road LocationRoman Roads in the Near East as a Test CasePazout, Adam|||0000-0001-7745-5634Cost functionsLeast cost pathMovement corridorsNear EastRoman roadsTopographic variablesThe article presents a new methodological approach to understanding (post-dicting) the location of ancient roads based on an inductive topographic analysis of existing road remains. The research is focused on the analysis of a spatially highly precise dataset of Roman roads in the Near East, using selected topographic variables (maximum slope, topographic position index, vector ruggedness measure). The identified limits of the topographic variables are used to create an isotropic (direction-independent) model of 'natural corridors of movement' using an adapted 'from everywhere to everywhere' (FETE) method. The modelled movement corridors are then overlaid by the known Roman road network in the Near East, and their overlap is calculated. The overlap between the modelled corridors and Roman roads is around ~ 25%, suggesting that the selected topographic variables and slope categories have limited explanatory power in understanding the layout of the Roman road network as a whole. The performance of the isotropic model is compared to four selected slope-based anisotropic functions (Tobler, Naismith, Herzog, Llobera-Sluckin). It is shown that the isotropic model incorporating a limited number of topographic variables better explains the location of Roman roads than the selected functions. It is argued that these results suggest that additional anthropic, cultural variables have a stronger influence on the layout of the Roman road network, and an alternative approach on how to incorporate topographic and anthropic variables is proposed. 22026-01-0120262026-01-01Articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://ddd.uab.cat/record/326480https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1007/s10816-026-09766-4reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UABinstname:Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaInglésengEuropean Commission https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780 101151931open accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:ddd.uab.cat:3264802026-06-06T12:50:31Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Using Archaeological Road Data to Evaluate Limits of Topography on Road Location
Roman Roads in the Near East as a Test Case
title Using Archaeological Road Data to Evaluate Limits of Topography on Road Location
spellingShingle Using Archaeological Road Data to Evaluate Limits of Topography on Road Location
Pazout, Adam|||0000-0001-7745-5634
Cost functions
Least cost path
Movement corridors
Near East
Roman roads
Topographic variables
title_short Using Archaeological Road Data to Evaluate Limits of Topography on Road Location
title_full Using Archaeological Road Data to Evaluate Limits of Topography on Road Location
title_fullStr Using Archaeological Road Data to Evaluate Limits of Topography on Road Location
title_full_unstemmed Using Archaeological Road Data to Evaluate Limits of Topography on Road Location
title_sort Using Archaeological Road Data to Evaluate Limits of Topography on Road Location
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Pazout, Adam|||0000-0001-7745-5634
author Pazout, Adam|||0000-0001-7745-5634
author_facet Pazout, Adam|||0000-0001-7745-5634
author_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Cost functions
Least cost path
Movement corridors
Near East
Roman roads
Topographic variables
topic Cost functions
Least cost path
Movement corridors
Near East
Roman roads
Topographic variables
description The article presents a new methodological approach to understanding (post-dicting) the location of ancient roads based on an inductive topographic analysis of existing road remains. The research is focused on the analysis of a spatially highly precise dataset of Roman roads in the Near East, using selected topographic variables (maximum slope, topographic position index, vector ruggedness measure). The identified limits of the topographic variables are used to create an isotropic (direction-independent) model of 'natural corridors of movement' using an adapted 'from everywhere to everywhere' (FETE) method. The modelled movement corridors are then overlaid by the known Roman road network in the Near East, and their overlap is calculated. The overlap between the modelled corridors and Roman roads is around ~ 25%, suggesting that the selected topographic variables and slope categories have limited explanatory power in understanding the layout of the Roman road network as a whole. The performance of the isotropic model is compared to four selected slope-based anisotropic functions (Tobler, Naismith, Herzog, Llobera-Sluckin). It is shown that the isotropic model incorporating a limited number of topographic variables better explains the location of Roman roads than the selected functions. It is argued that these results suggest that additional anthropic, cultural variables have a stronger influence on the layout of the Roman road network, and an alternative approach on how to incorporate topographic and anthropic variables is proposed.
publishDate 2026
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2
2026-01-01
2026
2026-01-01
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
VoR
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://ddd.uab.cat/record/326480
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1007/s10816-026-09766-4
url https://ddd.uab.cat/record/326480
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1007/s10816-026-09766-4
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv European Commission https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780 101151931
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
instname:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
instname_str Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
reponame_str Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
collection Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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