The Use of Maps to Help Diagnose the Processes by Which the Romans May Have Planned Their Roads and Walls in Northern Britain, with Particular Reference to the Antonine Wall in Scotland

Abstract

This article describes the ways in which both printed and digital forms of map have been used to help diagnose how Roman surveyors may have set out the lines of their roads across the landscape. Employing as a test bed the course of Roman Dere Street between the Vale of York and Newstead in Scotland, the processes of Roman road planning are interpreted and described. The possibility is then examined that these processes may have been applied to the planning of Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall in Scotland, and some of the interesting discoveries and conclusions arising from these investigations are described, with a particular emphasis upon the latter. This article provides only a subset of the findings from the author's work, however, and for those readers who may be interested the article makes reference to where the observations, analyses, and conclusions have been documented and published in full.