Testimony of stones: a new method in ancient traffic analysis

Stone architectural elements are perhaps the most ancient witnesses of an archaeological site.

Among those, threshold/paving stones are elements that take place almost at the first stage during the construction of the place. Repetitive pedestrian or vehicle movement gradually leaves a mark; this is most visible on thresholds or paving stones.

The use-wear can be used to estimate which places and roads were used more; archaeologists are almost always successful in identifying spaces of movement from micro to macro scales, but only rarely can they understand the intensity (frequency) of past movement.

With experimental methods in the field of rock mechanics, the abrasion caused by pedestrian traffic on rocks per unit time are calculated in a controlled setting.

On the other hand, such data (unless there is a written record) are unavailable for the archaeologist, and the only evidence available is an abraded stone.

The main aim of this research is to understand ancient traffic flow between spaces and to go beyond descriptive mapping-based strategies.

The methodology will examine the threshold/paving stones that were already unearthed and abrasion resistance data will be determined by experimental methods (rock mechanics, experimental archaeology etc.).

Following the analysis phase, the project will build an agent-based model to explore movement in and between spaces; mainly to investigate emergent characteristics of urban traffic.

In this way, it can be stated that the proposal of the research is innovative in this aspect, as it will create a concrete and new line of research and interpretation of archaeological contexts and will allow the testing of existing models.

Finally, an other deliverable of the project is to investigate ways of reducing physical threat to cultural heritage by means of creating a new form of emergent risk assessment.