Interactive Atlas of the Ancient Adriatic – AdriAtlas

Site notices, in the form of database entries (PostgreSQL), comprise a dozen of sections: ancient and present-day civil status (this term is subject to change according to recent history, country, region, town), description, state and history of research, ancient sources (literary, epigraphic, and others), bibliography, iconography, webography, vulnerability, touristic development initiatives. The database is multilingual: as of now entries have been written in French, Italian or English, according to the writer, but will gradually be translated in Albanian, Croatian and Slovenian. Notices on peoples, administrative and political entities, waterways and main roads will be added. In parallel, an ArcGIS geodatabase is put together with already available geographical layers: satellite imagery, territorial delineation and present-day towns, natural environment (contour lines, hydrographic network, geology, vegetation cover); other layers are created: ancient territorial delineation and infrastructures (roads, centuriations, large aqueducts). The geodatabase and site notices will be published on a dedicated geoportal, implemented for the project (ArcGIS Server). Thus data visualization will be possible through different scales or base maps and data layers combinations. Specific site or groups of sites spatial queries will be possible through both the geoportal and the database. Adriatlas, in its 3 years program, only covers Eastern Adriatic, from Trieste to the southern border of Albania.

The first significant result is the creation of a synergy of research, first of all by a reflection on a revival of historical cartography and geography taking advantage of newly available tools; this aspect has been the main subject of an international round-table meeting held in Bordeaux (21-22 September 2012) named L’Histoire et les cartes, à propos de l’Atlas informatisé de l’Adriatique antique (History and maps, about the interactive Atlas of ancient Adriatic). But above all, the gathering of a considerable amount of new data allows the development of a global and diachronic vision of the Adriatic area. In particular, it allows the researchers to keep up to date with an abundant and dispersed bibliography and the multiplication of archeological discoveries. Besides, the atlas helps decompartmentalizing a research no longer limited to the borders of each country. It creates a dynamic inside an Adriatic scientific community, more and more used to work together on shared research subjects. Thus, the 13 research centers involved in this project (archeological institutes of Ljubljana and Tirana, universities of Bari, Bologna, Lecce, Macerata, Padua, Pula, Trieste and Zadar) will gather together in a colloquium in the école française de Rome on the 4 and 5 of November 2013. At the same time, this knowledge is made immediately available for everyone. The portal Adriaticummare.org, which goes along with the Atlas, offers additional information. Finally, the cartographic tools are easily consulted and allow the use of different scales, switching with ease from a global vision of the Adriatic down to a microregion of 5000 m in length.

After the Eastern Adriatic, the Atlas will cover its Italian part in 2014 and 2015, but also intends to expand towards the Danube. Moreover, the Atlas is already the basis of new research, like for instance a new program on northern Istria and its hinterland in the framework of LabEx LaScArBx (Bordeaux). In the long run, the Atlas is a tool for thought, after a long tradition of diversions and distortions of History for two centuries. Besides, it draws the attention of decision-makers and the general public on the vulnerability of the historical and archeological heritage; the round-table meeting held in the école française de Rome on the 25th and 26th of October 2012 on the Littoraux en danger ? Vulnérabilité et protection du patrimoine archéologique littoral d'Adriatique orientale (Endangered coastlines ? Vulnerability and protection of the coastal archaeological heritage of eastern Adriatic) illustrates this new paradigm.

The main scientific production is the Atlas itself, covering eastern Adriatic. It is published on a geoportal. In addition, two thematic maps are produced: the first one on the vulnerability of Adriatic sites, the other one on the archaeological heritage which is visible today. Furthermore, the Adriaticummare.org portal completes the data from the Atlas by offering, amongst others, a repertory of historical maps of the Adriatic and an inventory of Adriatic periodicals. Finally, three scientific meetings connected to the Atlas making – the 2012 international round-table meetings held in Bordeaux and Rome, already mentioned, and an international colloquium in Rome about the ancient Adriatic (4-5 November, 2013) – will be published at the outcome of the program.

The project, AdriaAtlas proposes to construct an interactive digital atlas of the ancient Adriatic using a Geographic Information System (GIS) which will be available online for academics and the general public.
Project objectives
This interactive Atlas will include the coast regions of the ancient Adriatic where geographical limits are set at the water-sheds of the Italian peninsula, the Alps and the Balkans. In addition, it includes areas of ancient Aemilia (Emilia-Romagna), Venetia (Po valley) and the Ljubljana basin (Slovenia). The historical period considered in this project is from the end of the Bronze Age (11th century B.C.) to Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (8th century A.D.). A group of maps, each corresponding to a major period will be produced. It is not a question of constructing exhaustive archaeological maps, but will be a choice of sites considered important for history and archeology. Each site in these maps will be linked to a description with plans, photographs, ancient sources and bibliography. Academic publications and books for each region will also be available.
Partners and research associates
The three project partners are :
1. Ausonius (UMR 5607 CNRS / University of Bordeaux 3)
2. Ecole Française de Rome (Italy)
3. The Center for Digital Resources M2ISA (UMR 8564 CNRS-EHESS, Paris), for the development of a geoportal (online GIS).
Researchers at Trieste, Ljubljana, Pula, Zadar and Tirana will also be associated with the participating partners. Furthermore, the centers of the western Adriatic coast (Padua, Bologna, Macerata, Bari and Lecce) will also support the project by knowledge sharing.
In this project, the role of the Ausonius team will be threefold :
- Management of the whole project,
- Development of a web-portal called Adriaticum Mare,
- Role in the preparation of the eastern part of the Atlas from the Trieste region to Albania. The first test of the Atlas will be on Istria, then Liburnia, central and southern Dalmatia followed by Albania.
A new type of Atlas
The Adriatic itself as an historical space is a recent concept. Since late antiquity this area has been constantly a frontier zone and region of conflict with explains why up to the present time no comprehensive historical atlas of this area contains a map of the Adriatic at a meaningful scale.
Technical progress in geomatics, (geography combined with computer science) makes possible today what was utopian a few years ago, allowing the multiplication of maps at various scales and their regular updating.
AdriAtlas will provide both a collection of regularly updated maps (using the classical concept of the atlas), an encyclopedia, the documents of which will be drafted by the best specialists in the field, a bibliography and scientific publications and reports. Made available to scholars, historians and archaeologists as well as the general public, it will not only be a powerful tool for knowledge-sharing among the scientific community but also an important medium for the dissemination of knowledge.
In effect, the project will lead to the development of :
- a geoportal
- publications of proceedings of various meetings : a roundtable (Bordeaux), a colloquium (Rome), assessing the historical contribution this project
- a workshop on the coastlines risk related to two practical applications : a map of the threatened ancient Adriatic sites and a risk map of the heritage area.