The LiguSTAR Project: archaeological survey techniques as applied to the study of roman settlement on the riverbanks of the lacus Ligustinus (Southwest Spain)

Abstract

During the second century BC, the southern Iberian Peninsula was incorporated into the Roman Empire and the Hispania Baetica province was established in the late first century BC. Baetica was rich in resources such as metals, oil, and wine and included many towns and cities which controlled an intensive exploitation of their territories through the villae systems (Hidalgo 2016; Campos and Bermejo 2018). The goods they produced were exported through the main fluvial route, the Guadalquivir River or Baetis which spanned this vast area. This river was the main communication route of the province and consequently became the focus of many urban settlements. The mouth of the river was an estuary, a large coastal lake known according to the ancient author Avienus (Ora Maritima 283–284) as lacus Ligustinus in Late Antiquity. Nowadays it is transformed, as a result of the effects of silting up and geomorphological changes which occurred in a depression on the Atlantic coast of Andalusia (Spain) (Rodríguez-Ramírez 1998; Rodríguez-Ramírez et al. 2019). Most of the area is now marshland and predominantly part of the National Natural Park of Doñana. LiguSTAR, Ligustinus Project, archaeological Survey Techniques for an Ancient Riparian landscape, aims to investigate the ancient historical settlement patterns that led to the development of the landscape configuration along the banks of the lacus Ligustinus. The chronological time-frame of the project involves the long durée, from the eighth century BC to the twelfth century AD. Nevertheless, this study focuses on the second BC to the fifth century AD since it is the most interesting period to investigate the impact of the Roman conquest on the region.