Análisis territorial de la llanura de València: estudio arqueomorfológico, ocupación del territorio y dinámicas del paisaje

Identificador:  TDX:2702

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX2702

Autores:  Ortega Pérez, Maria Jesus

Resumen:
This is a Landscape Archaeology-based PhD thesis developed within the Landscape Archaeology Research Group (GIAP) of the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC). The research has been focused on the study of centuriations in coastal alluvial plains, human impact in wetlands and the application of Geographic Information Systems to Landscape Archaeology studies. All these research topics lie at the core of those projects directed by Josep M. Palet as director of the GIAP. Valencia’s coastal plain presents an ideal case study from an historical and geographical perspective to develop these research topics: it has a long and active human occupation history with clearly defined cultural episodes, which in combination with its natural character has configured the current cultural landscape. The research approach adopted for the study of this cultural landscape has integrated different disciplines and techniques: archaeomorphological analysis, site distribution analysis, the study of written sources and palaeoenvironmental analyses. Interdisciplinarity has been a key aspect of this work and it has provided reliability to the results described in this PhD, which are essential for the knowledge of the Valencian cultural landscape and its adequate management. This research has identified several key cultural phases in the formation of the Valencian cultural landscape. Two of those are of particular relevance. The first large landscape structuring took place during the Roman Imperial period through the development of centuriated grids in the plains within the territories of Saguntum, Saetabis and Valentia. The main axes of these centuriations are still in use. The second phase took place in the Andalusí period, when the Roman road network is modified and an extensive irrigation system is constructed. Although the extension of the irrigated system affects the Roman structuring at a local level, in general, it allows the preservation of most Roman centuriated axes.