Beyond least cost paths: circuit theory, maritime mobility and patterns of urbanism in the roman adriatic
Open accessAbstract
Traditionally, Least Cost Paths (LCP) are used for exploring mobility across archaeological landscapes. However, LCPs only highlight optimal paths, and implementing maritime mobility is arduous. In this paper, Circuit Theory (CT) analysis is used to analyse potential mobility. Key to this is the effect of wind patterns, dependent on the month and direction of travel, on maritime mobility. This analysis is applied to the case study of urbanism in the Roman Adriatic, and it is shown that CT provides considerably more quantitative data than LCP. These data can then be used in deeper analysis of the archaeological landscape, showing the impact of potential mobility on various factors. The impact on site distribution appears to be significant, with urban centres consistently being located in areas with above average potential mobility values, particularly those in the Northern Adriatic. The impact on population hierarchy is more com-plex, and while the urban centres with the largest populations generally have higher potential mobility values, there is no straightforward correlation between the two, and so additional factors must have played a more significant role in determining this hierarchy, than in site distribution.
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- Authors
- McLean, A., & Rubio-Campillo, X.
- Corresponding author
- McLean, Andrew
- Venue
- Journal of Archaeological Science
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-02
- Volume
- 138
- Pages
- 105534
- ISSN
- 0305-4403 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4200348486
- Cited by
- 32
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 20.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Archaeological Science (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona (Universitat de Barcelona) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación
- European Social Fund
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Maritime and Coastal Archaeology
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Space and Planetary Science › Archaeological Research and Protection
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History
- Keywords
- circuit theory, least-cost path, maritime mobility, urbanism, site distribution, wind patterns, travel direction, archaeological landscape
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