Between land and sky. A study of the orientation of Roman centuriations in Italy

The centuriations were public lands delimited and divided in regular lots by the Roman state as a result of the conquest but also the conceptual appropriation of new territories, that were transformed according to particular ideas of the space. Despite previous works refused the astronomical hypothesis for the orientation of Roman centuriations, recent publications supported the role of particular astronomical phenomena in the design of Roman land and urbanism in Italy. The aim of this work is to determine whether the orientation of the centuriations follow any pattern and, if any, the precepts underlying the election of privileged directions. We present a statistical study of the orientation of 67 centuriations in Italy, the largest sample of this type ever studied in this region, considering the conditions of the surrounding environment together with a comparative analysis with a dataset of the same type including 42 Italian Roman towns. The results show interesting patterns shared by both centuriations and towns, some of them coinciding with relevant astronomical events in the Roman context, together with others in which other requirements should have been prioritized. Summarizing, we should consider the sky as another element involved in the creation of the Roman urban and rural spaces.

Archaeoastronomy. Roman Archaeology. Roman urbanism. Centuriations. Roman landscape.