February – October 2016: the researcher performed a complete screening of the available bibliography about the Roman road network in the research area. This operation was preliminary to the mapping of the already known data about the Roman itinerary from Aquileia to Singidunum. Together with the excavated segments of the road, also the sites and findings that could mark its presence were located within a GIS system (milestones, necropolis, cities, road stations, …). A first mapping platform was developed using the GIS (Geographical Information System) open-source software QGIS, while a blog was opened to disseminate the research process (
http://reconstructingromanroads.wordpress.com(öffnet in neuem Fenster)). At this first stage, the data were stored in shapefile format, but a first structure for the final database was conceived and presented at the 12th Roman Archaeological Conference (Rome, 16-19 March 2016).
After mapping the existing information, it was necessary to integrate it with new data, coming from spatial and satellite remote sensing analyses aimed at detecting and identifying unknown segments of the Roman roads or the most probable paths where the Roman road might lay. All these data were imported too into the GIS platform. The result was a hypothetical mapping of the Roman itinerary, with a detailed definition of the reliability level of the information used.
November 2016 – April 2017: the researcher verified the hypothetical mapping of the Roman itinerary, performing focused surface survey in Slovenia (October 2016) and Serbia (March 2017). The survey enabled the verification of the research results and an update of the data stored in the GIS. The reliability of the mapped itinerary was sensibly increased thanks to the field survey: it was also possible to establish the validity of new remote sensing analysis techniques applied to the Sentinel-2 satellite images for archaeological purposes. Thanks to these images, more than 100 archaeological sites were precisely mapped in the region of Sremska Mitrovica (Serbia).
May 2017 – January 2018: the GIS platform was updated with the results of the surface survey. In the meanwhile, the logical structure of the database was refined. The researcher built the database using Spatialite language, respecting the format already established for the AdriAtlas (
http://adriaticummare.org/Map_Adriatlas/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)) platform.
Dissemination activities: The researcher took part to 4 international conferences.
An international round table was organized by the researcher at Université Bordeaux Montaigne on 15 November 2016: the proceedings of the conference were published at Ausonius Editions and will be released under open-access format after 12 months from the publication. Reference of the proceedings:
Zanni S. é d. La Route Antique et Médiévale : nouvelles approches, nouveaux outils, Bordeaux, 2017
In September 2017, the researcher with a small group of hikers, performed the “Walking like the Romans walked” action: they walked along the Roman itinerary from Aquileia to Belgrade, respecting the stages and stops represented on the Tabula Peutingeriana. It was thus possible to meet the people who live along the way today, telling the story of the project and of the Roman itinerary. Along the journey (27 days, 830 km walked), 5 public conferences were organized and the researcher presented her research in front of journalists and common people from four different countries.
On 29-30 November 2017, a two-days conference was organized by the researcher in Bordeaux and 21 researchers coming from institutes of 4 different countries discussed their results and methods in the field of ancient road networks and infrastructures. The proceedings of the conference will be published as a Supplement of the Journal Aquitania.
