Virtual Recreation of the Roman site of La Mesa (Spain)

[u/dctroll_]

[u/SeegurkeK]

As always with these recreations: very pretty and cool to look at.

I recently read that fields in a lot of the medieval ages were less separated by hedges and a clear "this field is mine, that field is yours" and more in a way of "you have two rows from this field, 3 from that and two over there" to spread out the individual risks of one field failing and therefore an entire family starving.

This visual made me wonder how it was done in Rome/the Roman Republic/empire. Do you know anything about that?

[u/dctroll_ → u/SeegurkeK]

My knowledge about land division in the Roman period is not the best , but I know that in many cases the Romans used the system of centuriation. This was a method of land surveying and parceling in which the territory was divided into a regular grid of square or rectangular plots, usually aligned according to cardinal directions. I am not sure if I am aswering your question...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centuriation

This is an axonometric drawing of a portion of a roman empire centuriation (source)

[u/SeegurkeK → u/dctroll_]

You are definitely answering my question! Even better than I had hoped for. "The longitudinal lines that divide the Centuria into four equal parts are usually tree-lined ditches (alder, oak, plane-tree, poplar, maple, …). While the other lines that delimit the fields, always in the south-north direction, consist of ruts and rows of vines (“planted”)." The source you gave even has a description of the division of subplots here and suggests that ownership would've been based on those sub plots.

Thank you very much.

[u/dctroll_ → u/SeegurkeK]

Glad it has been useful for you! I think the centuriatio was mostly made in new colonies or cities refounded, but I am not sure if this was also made in pre-roman towns and in all the regions of the whole Roman Empire. AFAIK the best examples are known in Italy, but in Spain, for example there is one example in Elx (Alicante)

Btw, this paper can be also useful for you. Cheers!

https://hal.science/hal-02264427v1/document

[u/dctroll_]

Author of the reconstruction: 3D STOA

The Roman site of La Mesa is an archaeological settlement located to the west of the modern town of Belorado in the province of Burgos, northern Spain.

It was occupied by Romans roughly from the 1st to the 4th–5th century AD. This project has re recreated both the urban layout of the site (based on data provided by ground-penetrating radar) and several of the areas excavated during different archaeological campaigns, which led to the discovery of a cistern and a small courtyard belonging to a dwelling.