Diverse movement in a dynamic environment: modelling local transport in the Dutch Roman limes
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 26/02/2017

This paper presents part of the research on local transport in the Dutch part of the Roman limes that was carried out in the context of the ‘Finding the limits of the limes’ project. Research on transport has traditionally focussed on long-distance connections, often related to historical and archaeological evidence. We know very little of local scale transport, perhaps precisely because of the lack of material to work with. Least-cost path models have often been applied in archaeology to bridge this gap, for example to investigate possible routes or to look into the factors that have governed movement in the past.
Reconstructing transport movements through least-cost path models is not straightforward: there are many dynamic parameters that change the way in which local transport materialises. The role of the natural environment must firstly be considered, particularly in the dynamic river landscape of the Dutch Roman limes. Secondly, transport can utilise multiple modes such as regular walking, ox-cart transport and water-based transport, and a single movement can potentially use more than one mode of transportation. Finally, there are many different functions available in path modelling as well as a distinction between energy-based and time-based models, each having its own applications and assumptions. How these aspects are considered and integrated in our research will be the core of this paper. The next step is then to move from reconstructed transport paths to transport networks, which will be briefly alluded to but be dealt with in greater detail in another paper.

Mark Groenhuijzen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam