Conditions for Vine Cultivation in Roman Times through
the Columella and GIS

Pedro Trapero-Fernández

pedro.trapero@uca.es 0000-0001-5808-054X

Área de Historia Antigua, Departamento de Historia, Geografía y Filosofía,
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Av. Dr. Gómez Ulla, 1. 11003 Cádiz.

Universidad de Cádiz.

KEYWORDS

Roman viticulture

Columella

GIS

Ancient agronomists

Hasta Regia

The study of ancient viticulture in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula has been widely studied for years, with Sáez Fernández being one of the specialists who contributes the most information to the state of the art, established in the 1980s. Since then, few works have investigated these questions. In this article, we update this information, to compare ancient agronomic knowledge with the current one. Authors such as Lucio Junio Moderato Columela have specific quotes for the area of study that talks about specific vine cultivation practices. We centre the study in the Ulterior Baetica province and more specifically the Roman colony of Hasta Regia. It is a neighbouring city to Gades, where Columela was originally from. This agronomic author will be, therefore, the main reference for this study, not only because of the possible indirect references to his territory of origin, but also because he is the most complete agronomist in matters of viticulture and, especially, because of the references to his uncle Marco Columela, a Betic farmer, thus providing first-hand information to know about viticulture in the area of study.

Our main objective, therefore, is the analysis of the correlation between these characteristics described in the old sources with the current ones, through a careful reading of the Latin agronomists and their relationship through the Geographic Information Systems with the current conditioners. This is first-hand information that can allow us to make correlations between this knowledge and current geographical conditions. Specifically, there are three main factors: the type of soil, the orientation and the slope of the land.

The problem in taking these references to a Geographic Information System, where they can be compared and modelled with current physical factors, is the correct interpretation of the words used. The method of work has consisted of a careful reading of the sources, to discern the meaning of words such as creta or paludes, terms applied to types of soil and vines. This information is used to know actual physical and geographical conditions that we can measure for creating a model in GIS. Therefore, based on these hypotheses of correlation, for example, between types of soils cited in the sources and the current ones, we look for arguments that defend or reject this relationship. For this reason, we have analyzed the different keywords in this literature, comparing them with other ancient authors to clearly define the meaning and possible association between the words. These issues are expressed in tables in the various sections of this article.

The results of the study show that in general, the correlation made by Sáez Fernández is correct, although there are some nuances to be considered. In general, we can see that the ancient edaphological knowledge was very limited because they only perceived the physical and not chemical issues. Hence, soil typologies such as marls were difficult to contextualize. We can contribute to their recognition, probably with the chalk cited by Columela. Along with this, the debate about the type of marshy vines, which should not be in riparian or flooding areas and which would correspond to vines in vertisol lands, is relevant.

All this data allows, using geographic information systems, to carry out modelling of the optimal places, based on weighing the importance and preference of these determining factors. This is a model that has been published previously, but whose determining factors had not been correctly contextualized.

Among other issues, this careful analysis of agronomic sources is provided as a basis for correlations with current Earth Sciences. This allows the GIS model generated, but also many other potential applications to various workspaces and periods.

This study shows that it is possible to make correlations between information from written sources and current conditions. We already knew that the main determining factors are the types of soil, slope and orientation. Among them, the first one has been more complicated to assimilate with current soil characteristics, due to the low level of ancient knowledge on these issues. To this, we must add the use of the same term with different meanings. However, the wealth of agronomic literature allows us to define which is each of these interpretations for the words, which are provided in the article. This study is interesting because these associations can be key to interpreting ancient visions. For example, chalk alludes to several different types of materials, although in the case of soils it seems to identify marls, a type of soil that in physical properties can be confused with others such as clay soils, but which ancient agronomists were able to identify for reasons such as colour.

This type of interpretation allows us to get closer to the mentality and natural knowledge of these agronomists, allowing us, in turn, to measure and transfer conditions to the present day for GIS models. In the specific area, the lines of study are based on doing more surveys to know better the material culture and in comparing other series of information as the toponymy. It may also have great potential for transfer to other places or historical periods, once the determining factors are understood, always from a deep knowledge of literary sources. Recently an article has been published, in which this model is contrasted and tested with others, resulting in an improvement in the understanding and analysis capacity of these GIS tools.

Conditions for Vine Cultivation in Roman Times through the Columella and GIS

Conditions for Vine Cultivation in Roman Times through
the Columella and GIS