Viewshed-based analysis of historical maritime landscapes: a case study from southern Adriatic

Viewshed-based analysis of historical maritime landscapes: a case study from southern Adriatic A. LABRIOLA Dipartimento di Ricerca e Innovazione Umanistica, Università degli Studi di Bari, Italy 1 Premises Spatial orientation in a marine environment •Wind directions •Observation of coastal landmarks •Portolan handbooks •Celestial navigation (astrolabes, sextant) •Compass (11th century AD in China, 12th century AD in the Mediterranean) •Nautical charts (13th century in the Mediterranean) •GPS (20 century) Plery Plenary 2 Maritime landscapes as cultural landscapes Plery Plenary Crotone, Capocolonna, Temple of Hera Lacinia 3 Research Goals Viewshed-based analysis of historical maritime landscapes •Development of a methodology for the GIS-based analysis of the visual impact of the natural and built components of maritime landscapes •Reconstruction of the dynamic perception of landscapes related to the activity of navigation in the Antiquity •Cross-analysis of the resulting data with information coming from ancient sources Plery Plenary 4 Case study Long-distance sea routes in the southern Adriatic Sea in the Roman Empire •Strabo, Geography (around 24 AD) •Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia (77 AD) •Antonine Itinerary, Itinerarium Maritimum (3rd century). Plery Plenary 5 Case study Plery Plenary 6 Methodology •Visibility analysis with software QGIS •Radius of analysis: 20 NM •SRTM DEM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) •Multiple viewpoints (reciprocal distance 3 NM) •Observers’ height: 4 m Plery Plenary 7 Cumulative viewsheds Plery Plenary 8 Eastern Adriatic coast: Durrës Plery Plenary 15 Western Adriatic coast: Brindisi Plery Plenary Twin columns in the harbour of Brindisi in the 13th century Arca di San Teodoro (above) and in an illustration from Antoine-Laurent Castellan, Lettres sur l’Italie, 1819 (right). 16 •This preliminary study outlines a viewshed-based methodology for the historical investigation of maritime landscapes •The proposed methodology provides an additional tool for the study of the influence of the activity of navigation on the formation of cultural landscapes •Possible future implications of this work include the elaboration of a GIS mapping of natural and man-made landmarks related to the history of navigation in the Roman Southern Adriatic, which can be adopted as a framework for the planning of strategies of valorisation and preservation. Conclusions Plenary Thank you! Alessandro Labriola alessandr[email protected] Acknowledgements: This work is part of the research project “La rotta e l'approdo. La percezione del viaggio per mare nel mondo greco e romano”, developed in the framework of the Partnership Program Partenariati Estesi - Progetto CHANGES “Cultural Heritage Active Innovation for Sustainable Society” (Project code (CUP) H53C22000860006, Identification number PE00000020 – Spoke 1, Project manager prof. Giuliano Volpe, Scientific supervisor prof. Monica Livadiotti).