Urban Connectivity

The project has the following five research questions, based on data gathered in the field and through archival research between 2002 and 2008:

1. How significant were geographical considerations in the location of towns in southern Spain between the 5th century BC and the 2nd century AD ?
2. How significant were inter-urban relationships over the same period ?
3. How were they manifested ?
4. What was the impact of Rome on these relationships?
5. What kind of methodologies can be developed for characterizing connections between towns

These questions are being answered through the application of computational methodologies that allow urban attributes and different classes of archaeological and epigraphic material to be modelled within landscape contexts by computer-based analyses. These are firmly situated within an interpretative framework that focuses upon inter-urban connectivity and network analysis. The project research area is focused upon the middle and lower Guadalquivir valley and its tributaries, the modenr province of Seville together with parts of Cordoba, Cadiz and Huelva.

The project will submit a monograph for publication in the course of 2012, alongside deposit of the data and analysis scripts with the Archaeology Data Service and initial dissemination via this website. The PhD student Helen Woodhouse has successfully completed her thesis. Elements of this are being incorporated into the monograph and deposit.