LiguSTAR · Ligustinus Project: New Survey Techniques for an Ancient Riparian Landscape.

Ligustinus Project: New Survey Techniques for an Ancient Riparian Landscape.

During ancient times, the southern Iberian Peninsula was incorporated into the Roman Empire and the Hispania Baetica province was established in the late first century BC. Baetica was rich in resources such as metals, oil and wine and there were many towns and cities which controlled an intensive exploitation of their territories through the villae systems. The goods they produced were exported through the main fluvial route, the Guadalquivir River or Baetis . The mouth of the river was an estuary, a large coastal lake known as lacus Ligustinus in Late Antiquity. Nowadays it is transformed, as a result of the silting up effects and geomorphological changes . Most of the area is now marshland and predominantly part of the National Natural Park of Doñana (Andalusia). From this chronological, geographic and conceptual framework, the project aims at investigating the historical settlement pattern that has produced the landscape configuration on the banks of lacus Ligustinus. Rural settlements located in its paleo-banks were dedicated to farming, and the subsequent processing and export of agricultural products. Moreover, the proximity of ancient settlements on the riverbanks played a role as an enabler of fluvial-maritime communications, oriented toward the export of the products to the Mediterranean markets. The identification of these archaeological remains allows us to propose the theoretical restitution of paleo-banks, in coordination with geomorphological and geographical studies also being carried out. The LiguSTAR project is oriented towards designing and applying a method to identify and analyse these archaeological landscapes using non-invasive techniques, such as remote sensing techniques on different scales. The methodology has been designed in the University of Siena’s Laboratory of Landscape Archaeology & Remote Sensing (LAP&T). The overall objectives of the project are the integral study and the reconstruction of the Roman settlement patterns, and their diachronic evolution, along the riverbanks of the paleo-estuary. To achieve this objective, a methodology using non-invasive survey techniques, such as remote sensing and so called “traditional” ones, has been carried out in different scales of analysis. The research focus of the LiguSTAR project has contributed to the advance in the historical knowledge of the ancient human occupation of the estuary’s riverbanks. In addition, the Guadalquivir River was one of the most important fluvial routes of the Iberian Peninsula, in comparison to other important deltas and estuaries in the Mediterranean and Atlantic spaces. Estuaries and their banks are vulnerable ecosystems, where many landscapes transformations occur. Due to global climate change, these landscapes are being degraded and disappearing altogether. The usages of these ecosystems by traditional societies (including ancient ones) are more sustainable with the environment than in comparison with modern usages. For this reason, we can learn about the human interaction with the riparian environments and recover and put into practice the traditional knowledge to restore and keep the water ecosystems safe. In addition, the advance of the historical knowledge of the spatial configuration of the riverbanks and its surroundings in the Low Guadalquivir region, helps society to understand the current configuration of the land and its past.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз