IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i4p3388-d1066520.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Between Land and Sky—A Study of the Orientation of Roman Centuriations in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea Rodríguez-Antón

    (Institute of Heritage Sciences (INCIPIT-CSIC), 15707 Santiago de Compostela, Spain)

  • Giulio Magli

    (Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy)

  • Antonio César González-García

    (Institute of Heritage Sciences (INCIPIT-CSIC), 15707 Santiago de Compostela, Spain)

Abstract

The centuriations were public lands delimited and divided in regular lots by Rome as a result of the conquest but also the conceptual appropriation of new territories, which were transformed according to particular ideas of space. Despite previous works rejecting the astronomical hypothesis for the orientation of Roman centuriations, recent publications have supported the role of particular astronomical phenomena in the design of Roman land and urbanism in Italy. The aim of this work is to determine whether the orientation of the centuriations follows any pattern, and to determine the precepts, if any, underlying the election of privileged directions. We present a statistical study of the orientation of 67 centuriations in Italy—the largest sample of this type ever studied in this region—that considers the conditions of the surrounding environment together with a comparative analysis with a dataset of the same type that includes 52 Italian Roman towns. The results show interesting patterns shared by both centuriations and towns, some of them coinciding with relevant astronomical events in the Roman context, together with others in which differentrequirements would have been prioritized. In summary, we should consider the sky as an element involved in the creation of Roman urban and rural spaces.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Rodríguez-Antón & Giulio Magli & Antonio César González-García, 2023. "Between Land and Sky—A Study of the Orientation of Roman Centuriations in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-16, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:3388-:d:1066520
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3388/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3388/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:3388-:d:1066520. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.