Transportation System Simulation and Analysis in the North of Roman Carpetania. A gis and Network Analysis Approach

Abstract

This paper characterises how the territory of northern Roman Carpetania was articulated through its communication routes. In this case, we have approached this work from an innovative perspective away from traditional urban-centric ones. With this aim, we have carried out a transportation network simulation in the study area using gis. The results for the main roads fit remarkably well with the Roman roads described in the ancient sources. This provides us with a high degree of reliability to analyse the articulation of the territory through secondary roads and rural paths. We have analysed the location of some characteristic settlements on the road network as well as the areas with the greatest accessibility using tools derived from network analysis. These analyses suggest that the villages and agglomerations present in the territory played a crucial role in the territorial articulation, mainly in those areas less covered by the municipal influence areas.