Centuriated landscapes and historical maps: VEiL in the archives

Historical maps have been traditionally used by archaeologists working on ancient topography to identify relevant features of the past landscapes that might not survive anymore in the present territories and that might be of interest for the archaeological research. At the same way, legacy data (including maps and documents of excavations and fortuitous discoveries and recoveries taking place in the past hundred years or so) can provide valuable information that might lead to further discoveries, even many decades after the original discoveries.

Accordingly, some of the VEiL's team members have spent the first days of the fieldwork activities in the Cartographic Archive of the National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia in order to identify historical maps that may represent elements of interest for the archaeologists and analyse legacy data that can lead in the identification of new elements of the Aquileian centurial system.

The collection of the Archive includes both an historic collection with geographic maps and other documents dating back to the period between the foundation of the Museum in 1882 and  the First WW, as well as drawings, surveys and maps relative to the archaeological and architectonic monuments of the ancient city and to the occasional discoveries in and outside the Roman city walls.