Mapping Pausania: A GIS-Based Reconstruction of the Laconian Landscape
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Date
2025
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Eurographics Association
Abstract
The archaeological landscape of ancient Greece is a paradigmatic case study for cultural heritage research, not only because of the sheer amount of identified remains, but also because of the many ancient texts referring to such elements. In this regard, among the surviving literary works from antiquity, the Periegesis of Pausanias represents a valuable asset, whose exhaustiveness in firsthand descriptions has exerted a strong influence on modern research. The narrative of the text, structured as a series of itineraries, is particularly suitable for the creation of digital maps which may recreate ancient landscapes and compare them with the current state of research. In particular, the region of Laconia has proven to be promising in light of the state of partial decay already observed in Roman times, by the time of the author's analysis. Therefore, the area has been isolated as a case study and recreated in the form of three GIS maps by using the ArcGIS software, focusing respectively on Laconia in the classical age, in the Roman age, and in the current state. As such, the three maps may be used simultaneously for synchronic and diachronic investigations of the region, thereby enabling the evaluation of the peculiarities of the studied landscape and heritage. The data visualized in the digital maps is derived from a critical analysis of the text and associated with comments based on the state of the art, which not only enhance the study of the mapped remains but also allow for the assessment of the state of identification of the landscape treated by Pausanias. The georeferenced database, built to support the spatial analysis and the data visualization, aims to overcome the limitations generally inherent to other thesauri and gazetteers of the classical world, thanks to a taxonomy that allows for the rapid isolation of salient features of the mapped data. Data such as the time period, the actual state of identification, modern toponymy, and the typology of the remains can be quickly researched, thus enabling several kinds of queries. All the produced cartography is also intended to be uploaded online by using the ArcGIS Online cloud platform, with the aim to create a web application that ensures maximum visibility and easy access to the mapped material.
Description
CCS Concepts: Applied computing → Cartography; Archaeology; Human-centered computing → Geographic visualization; Information systems → Web applications
@inproceedings{10.2312:dh.20253080,
booktitle = {Digital Heritage},
editor = {Campana, Stefano and Ferdani, Daniele and Graf, Holger and Guidi, Gabriele and Hegarty, Zackary and Pescarin, Sofia and Remondino, Fabio},
title = {{Mapping Pausania: A GIS-Based Reconstruction of the Laconian Landscape}},
author = {Cornaglia, Marco and Barzaghi, Sebastian and Iannucci, Alessandro},
year = {2025},
publisher = {The Eurographics Association},
ISBN = {978-3-03868-277-6},
DOI = {10.2312/dh.20253080}
}