centuriation
Sign in to saveCenturiation (in Latin centuriatio or, more usually, limitatio), also known as Roman grid, was a method of land survey used by the Romans. In many cases land divisions based on the survey formed a field system, often referred to in modern times by the same name. According to O. A. W. Dilke, centuriation combined and developed features of land surveying present in Egypt, Etruria, Greek towns and Greek countryside.
Article
15 sectionsContents
- History
- System and procedure
- Measurement instruments
- Orientation
- Centuriation of the surrounding territory
- Regions where centuriation was used
- Significant examples of centuriation in Italy
- Traces of centuriation in ''Gallia Narbonensis'' (Southern France)
- Traces of centuriation in ''Hispania''
- Traces of centuriation in ''Britannia'' (present-day southern and central Britain)
- Traces of centuriation in Dacia (present-day south-western Romania)
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
- Further reading
Centuriation (in Latin centuriatio or, more usually, limitatio), also known as Roman grid, was a method of land survey used by the Romans. In many cases land divisions based on the survey formed a field system, often referred to in modern times by the same name. According to O. A. W. Dilke, centuriation combined and developed features of land surveying present in Egypt, Etruria, Greek towns and Greek countryside.
Centuriation is characterised by the regular layout of a square grid traced using surveyors' instruments. It may appear in the form of roads, canals and agricultural plots. In some cases these plots, when formed, were allocated to Roman army veterans in a new colony, but they might also be returned to the indigenous inhabitants, as at Orange (France).