Preliminary communication
Spatial analysis of a Roman road: Incero – Stravianis – Mursa. Hill section
Jere Drpić
orcid.org/0000-0003-2857-6223
; Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This paper focuses on the exploration of the hill section of the Roman road that led from the settlement of Incero (the Požega basin) via Stravianis (around Našice) to Mursa (Osijek), which is mentioned in Roman itineraries as part of a regional road, Siscia – Mursa. Earlier researchers of this road report that the ancient road to the road station of Stravianis was routed through the Krndija Mountains, and is usually thought to be near Bedemgrad, i.e. Gradac Našički, as previous research found the largest concentration of Roman finds in its wider area. In order to investigate the spatial characteristics of that section of the route of the Roman road and why it was routed through this particular hilly area of Krndije, this paper applies the methods and tools used by landscape archaeology – more precisely, the capabilities of the geographic information system; within that system, we georeferenced the data from ancient sources, literature, and field surveys. We used the Least Cost Path algorithm to generate optimal routes between "key" points, which enabled the spatial analysis and prediction of the corridor in question. By applying this methodology, we obtained results based on specific spatial analyses, largely confirming earlier assumptions about the route and the location of the Roman road station of Stravianis, but also bring some new knowledge indicating the possibility that Romans could also use an alternative or more direct route towards Mursa that was not considered before, umjesto and the location of the Roman road station of Stravianis.
Keywords
Krndija; geographic information system (GIS); Least Cost Path analysis; Roman mountain road; Stravianis; landscape archaeology; Roman road station
Hrčak ID:
289659
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2022.
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