DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15576185
title: Data for the Research Article: The impact of Malaria on the spatial distribution of healing cults in Roman Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia: A GIS approach

description: This repository serves as supplementary material for the article The impact of Malaria on the spatial distribution of healing cults in Roman Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia: A GIS approach.

Files:



Geocoded Latin inscriptions collected from the LIST dataset (Vojtěch Kaše, Petra Heřmánková, & Adéla Sobotková. (2024). LIST (v1.2) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10473706) mentioning the deities Asclepius, Apollo, Minerva, Jupiter, Mercury, Silvanus, Isis, Neptune, Hercules in a csv format. Filename format: ListdeitynameWKTv1_2.csv (includes epitaphs). Filename format: ListdeitynameWKTv1_2_no_epitaphs.csv (does not include epitaphs based on the type_of_inscription_auto attribute in LIST). Geocoordinates of these data are used from their original databases (i.e., EDH, EDCS).

deities_decline.csv is a vocabulary for collecting LIST inscriptions based on mentions of deities.

Figures of the research article (with mirrored figures 5 and 6 including epitaphs)

Data for measuring the proportionality of malaria danger in individual Roman provinces and the intensity of worship in these provinces



Malaria_proportion_cults.csv is a table with the following parameters: wkt_geom (geometries for polygons of the Roman provinces in the analysis); name (name of the province); province_area_decimal_m2 (area of each province in m2); danger_area (area of each province covered by Torelli zones 2 and 3 in m2); danger_proportion (proportion of the province area covered by Torelli zones 2 and 3); name_of_the_deity_no_epitaphs (number of inscriptions for each deity in a province); Total (total number of inscriptions to the deities in the analysis in each province); name_of_the_deity_no_epitaphs_perc (proportion of the total number of inscriptions constituted by the number of inscriptions for each deity in a province). The same rationale is in the table for data including epitaphs: Malaria_proportion_cults_incl_epitaphs.csv. The Spearman correlation analysis in the article is based on these tables.

GIS file Torelli_inscriptions_selection.geojson is for selecting inscriptions in the area covered by the Torelli map.

GIS file Torelli_2_3_polygon.geojson represents joined zones 2 and 3 from the Torelli map.

Spearman proportion results.xlsx and Spearman proportion results including epitaphs.xlsx are the results of the Spearman correlation analysis in the comparison of Malaria proportion per province to the proportion of inscriptions to each deity (on data with no epitaphs and on data with epitaphs).



Python script (Asclep_no_epitaphs.ipynb) for analysis, figures 5 and 6, and Table 2; seed for replicability is 5 in bootstrapping. For analysis on data with epitaphs, change the csv file in the script to Distances_inlc_epitaphs.csv. In the bootstrapping part, for the data with epitaphs, change the target number of distances parameter to 41 (matching Asclepius), and the seed for reproducibility is 14.

Distances_no_epitaphs.csv, Distances_incl_epitaphs.csv show the distances in meters from the locations of cults to the nearest Malaria zone on data with no epitaphs and on data with epitaphs.

Files Grid Torelli 2 a 3 meters are shapefiles with a grid of points (100m) in zones 2 and 3 based on Torelli map.

Malaria_literature.csv and Malaria_archaeology.csv files as proxies for ancient evidence for Malaria.


GIS files are in EPSG:3035 CRS, with the exception of WKT point coordinates for inscriptions in CSV, which are in EPSG:4326.

Torelli map version that was used as a basis for creating Torelli GIS files is from https://github.com/browningTech/Malaria-Risk-Model-for-the-Mediterranean-in-Antiquity; as a result of the Browning Jr, Daniel C. 2023. “A Malaria Risk Model for the Mediterranean in Antiquity Based on the Historical Carta Della Malaria Dell’Italia.” Journal of Maps 19 (1): 2242724. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2023.2242724.

Funding information: This work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund project “Beyond Security: Role of Conflict in Resilience-Building” (reg. no.: CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004595).