Historical survey and data collection

         Structural remains of Roman funerary monument near Potentia.               Roman tombstone found near Septempeda.

The so-called historical survey incorporates firstly a confrontation of  the new survey data, obtained in more than 10 years of fieldwork, with so-called ‘legacy data’ from earlier observations in the valley. The latter are most often chance finds brought to light in the course of the past three centuries, and therefore not the result of refined investigations and registration. Among these legacy data we also distinguish the results of more controlled excavations by instances such as the Soprintendenza per I beni archeologici delle Marche or teams from the University of Macerata, in the course of the past decades. Furthermore, the existing (ancient) historical written information is read and re-examined , while all relevant historical cartographic material is collected, thus giving information about the landscape's development during the past centuries. This intensive new archive research allows, among others, to diachronically analyse the land use and specifically the centuriation connected with the Roman occupation of the lower Potenza valley. This leads to a new GIS-based cartography, which enlightens the ancient development of this Middle-Adriatic coastal landscape and its ancient cadastral systems, in particular between the Roman towns of Potentia and Ricina.

 

Analysis of Roman centuriation remains with the help of historical aerial photographs.