Network Analysis of Roman Transport Routes in the Imperial Roman Mediterranean

Research Team: David Potts

This research is designed to explore the nature of the relationships between Portus, Rome, and other selected ports in the Mediterranean and to establish patterns and the changing nature of trading networks derived from the distribution of known Roman artefacts. This research proposal suggests that networks should be examined within the concept of a software agent which can be programmed to mimic the different actions of a theoretical population, in the context of changes of season and movement of resources abstracted from known sources, to quantify and characterise the inter node relationships.

Software agents are derived from the concept of the finite state machine, which is often used in gaming technologies to create the concept of an intelligent opponent which reacts to input states and responses from a preconfigured set of output actions. The interaction between multiple instances of different software agents may illuminate aspects of network analysis that may not be obvious when using traditional analytical methodologies.

Computational Modelling Group

Network Analysis of Roman Transport Routes in the Imperial Roman Mediterranean

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