On the orientation of Roman towns in Italy
Abstract
Description
As is well known, several Roman sources report on the existence of a town foundation ritual, inherited from the Etruscans, which allegedly included astronomical references. However, the possible existence of astronomical orientations in the layout of Roman towns has never been tackled in a systematic way. As a first step in this direction, the orientation of virtually all Roman towns in Italy (38 cities) is studied here. Non-random orientation patterns emerge from these data, aiming at further research in this field.
Archaeoastronomy/History of astronomy; 11 pages, 3 figures
Archaeoastronomy/History of astronomy; 11 pages, 3 figures