GIS Spatial Analysis and the Roman Archaeology in Spain and Portugal: a brief overview

Abstract

The Iberian Peninsula, as a diverse geographical group, has been divided throughout history into different units. Either by areas of influence of different cultures, such as the Celts, Greeks or Phoenicians, but also by administrative divisions. In Roman times there were several, the most important being the division of Hispania by Augustus into three provinces, Lusitania, Baetica and Tarraconensis. However, these divisions were administrative rather than spatial. Today the territory is divided into two states, Spain and Portugal, following a border that is political rather than geographical and does not correspond to the previous historical reality. Thus, for example, the Portuguese Lusitanians have the capital of the Roman province outside Portugal, as well as part of the North of the Douro, which was the territory of the Tarraconensis. What is important for us in this division is that the historical and archaeological studies must be circumscribed to the laws and problems of each state, although they are limited to the same historical reality. In the case of this book, the problem is greater, since there has been a difference in the translations and developments by researchers in Geographic Information Systems. In addition to this, the education that is given, including the access to geographic resources, means that in a discipline that could be the same in both countries, there is a great difference between the two. This explains in large part why there is a difference between studies in Spain and Portugal.