GIS-based visibility and intervisibility studies of the Roman Republican Camps at Numantia and Renieblas near Soria, Spain.

Résumé

Graphical Information System (GIS) methodologies and ArcGIS are used to evaluate visibility and intervisibility between the important Roman Republican military sites at the Celtiberian city (oppidum) of Numantia and nearby Renieblas, concentrating on the visibility role of towers around the Roman defences. Adolf Schulten’s 1906–1912/1927 excavation interpretations and the results of subsequent researchers were georeferenced, vectorised and combined with digital elevation and topographical data. The resulting over 400 vectorised geospatial points, lines and polygons allowed digital models and viewshed maps to be created. Analysis revealed that visibility from and between installations varied greatly, and that the many towers, integral to Scipio´s siegeworks (134/133 BC) and the Renieblas camps, needed to have been at least seven metres high to be effective. The viewshed analysis also added significant support to interpreting two of the Scipionic camps at Numantia, Castillejo and Peña Redonda, as the two Roman army command-centres indicated in the literary sources.