A diachronic study of the Roman skyscapes of Tarraco (Tarragona, Spain)

The role of astronomy in the urban plan and configuration of the territories under Roman control is a subject of study with a long trajectory. In the last decades, archaeoastronomical research into the astronomical aspects in regions of the Roman Empire in the East and West indicated that, despite avoiding environmental constraints, the sky in specific configurations was a fundamental factor in the layout of landscape and skyscape during the territorial expansion of Rome. Archaeoastronomy is an interdisciplinary field that employs tools and methods from astronomy and landscape archaeology to examine astronomical evidence and elucidate the relationship between those with diverse manifestations of Roman culture in specific contexts and the reasons behind. This paper presents a diachronic archaeoastronomical study in a prominent capital of the Roman Empire, Tarraco, with the objective of discerning whether particular astronomical features influenced urban and land design in the various projects of land appropriation and division, which ones were those, and why. This would enable the determination of whether Roman surveying was sufficiently flexible and adaptable to surmount the environmental constrains while accounting for other, more symbolic, considerations through the creation of special skyscapes.