Meet and greet: Squares in Secondary Agglomerations of the Northwestern Roman Provinces - Resubmission

拟议的两国研究项目致力于莱茵省和雷蒂亚省较小中心内的公共广场。虽然对大城镇论坛的研究相对较好，但对所谓次级集聚中的论坛相对较少。小城镇居民点包含的广场本可以发挥许多类似的功能。然而，任何将“论坛”一词归因于这些广场的企图都暴露了一种研究赤字，该项目旨在通过采用结合考古学、计算考古学、考古科学和古代史方法的跨学科方法来解决这一问题。这一方法旨在从多个标量的角度深入调查西北各省和邻近地区广场的用途、功能和定义特点。罗马各省的考古学将研究并定义二级城市群中广场的建筑和年代特征，并试图与城市的论坛相比较，阐明它们的多重功能(行政、仪式、商业)。对建筑和年代规范的评估将使重要关键遗址的综合案例研究成为可能。通过这种方式，还可以确定这些政体的任何一种自治的指标。罗马各省的考古学虽然采用了古代史的观点，但将进一步审查关于开放公共空间在次级集聚中的作用和重要性以及将这些住区纳入其省份内更广泛的社会文化进程的文字证据。这些证据最终将有助于确定政治事件在多大程度上反映在所审查的广场和定居点的改造中。计算方法(考古信息学)将用于研究广场的社会象征方面，特别是与空间能见度和运动有关的方面。此外，他们还将探索区域范围内的人类互动，这可能会进一步深入了解二级城市群中广场的经济和行政功能。最后，巴塞尔项目合作伙伴进行的考古和地质考古调查有望为广场不断变化的用途和功能提供新的线索。前者可以通过检查食物浪费和仪式表演的遗迹来增强我们对前人日常生活的了解。此外，大多数勉强加固的公共广场显示出显著的环境影响积累，因此微形态分析可以明确这些地点的传记。该项目将使用一种综合的方法来检查二级集聚中的广场，作为不同政治的表现，并确定它们在多个尺度上的明显特征。

The proposed bi-national research project is dedicated to public squares within the smaller centres of the Rhine provinces and Raetia. While fora in large towns are comparatively well studied, their equivalents in so-called secondary agglomerations are relatively little understood. Small-town settlements contain squares that would have served a number of comparable functions. However, any attempt to attribute the term “forum” to these squares reveals a research deficit, which this project aims to address by adopting an interdisciplinary approach that combines methods from archaeology, computational archaeology, archaeological sciences and ancient history. This approach aims to thoroughly investigate the use, functions and defining characteristics of squares in the north-western provinces and neighbouring regions from a multi-scalar perspective. The Archaeology of the Roman provinces will look into and define the architectural and chronological characteristics of squares in secondary agglomerations and will attempt to illuminate their multiple functions (administrative, ritual, commercial) in comparison to the fora of the cities. An evaluation of architectural and chronological specifications will enable integrative case studies of significant key sites. In this manner, indicators of any kind of self-administration of those polities can also be identified. Adopting although the Ancient History perspective the Archaeology of the Roman Provinces will furthermore examine textual evidence on the role and importance of open public spaces in secondary agglomerations as well as the integration of these settlements into wider socio-cultural processes within their provinces. Such evidence will eventually help determine the degree to which political events are reflected in the transformation of the squares and settlements under examination. Computational methods (Archaeoinformatics) will be used to study socio-symbolic aspects of the squares, especially those pertaining to visibility and movement in space. Furthermore, they will explore human interactions at a regional scale that could offer further insights into the economic and administrative functions of squares in secondary agglomerations. Finally, archaeozoological and geoarchaeological investigations by the project partner in Basel promise to shed new light into the changing uses and functions of squares. The former could enhance our knowledge about the everyday life of past people via the examination of food waste and remains of ritual performance. Furthermore, the majority of barely consolidated public squares display a significant accumulation of environmental influences, so that micromorphological analysis can specify the biography of those sites. The project will use an integrative approach to examine squares in secondary agglomerations as expressions of distinct polities and identify their evident characteristics at multiple scales.