Modelling of Roman-period property surveyor actions in HISPANIA

Abstract

The literary works produced by the Roman Land Surveyors, also known as agrimensores, provide valuable insight into the management and demarcation of rural properties in the Roman world. Through these sources, we gain an understanding of how farms were partitioned and the elements employed to establish their boundaries. However, due to the general nature of the information, it is often difficult to apply it to modern-day archaeological studies, as we are typically only aware of the primary country house, such as the pars urbana in a villa. Nowadays, we have tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that allow us to approximate how could be the territory and its cadastre. In this article, we propose a methodology to combine Roman documentary evidence regarding land surveying, and tools to delimitate territoria in ancient sources, with geographic space, establishing a theoretical model on how to delimit estates in order to allow us to know their fundi. For this purpose, we use a case study in the Alto Alentejo (Portugal), a unique region where there is a high density of Roman villae, but whose settlement structure is not well known, and which could be part of a prefecture of the capital of Lusitania province Colonia Augusta Emerita. The proposed model allows us to visually see and relate the criteria applied by surveyors, like delimitation by streams or high elevations. This model translates the ancient knowledge to actual geography to propose boundaries, so we can discuss questions such as the possibility of secondary settlement as settlers or independent landowners or the potential areas of saltus.