UrbaNetworks · Visualizing ancient urban networks

The proposed research builds on the 3 fields of classical archaeology, urban studies and computer applications in archaeology. It is innovative in that it will:-offer a new approach to the study of urbanism in the Hellenistic period by focusing on social and economic changes at the micro-level of the city and addressing their relation to the overall urban form.-provide a model for computer applications in archaeological research by using quantitative methods and statistical analysis tools to study the forces that shaped urban form over time.The project focuses on the residential neighbourhoods of late Hellenistic Delos to address the ties between economic change and urban growth. By analysing the urban development of late Hellenistic Delos in relation to economic activities, public administration and private initiatives, the project examines these neighbourhoods as microcosms of the broader developments that the island underwent during this period, when the island became a commercial base connecting the eastern and western Mediterranean. The urban form of Delos was not the result of a single planning initiative but of consecutive decisions and actions of both private and public sectors. As this obvious fact often gets lost in the specialized analyses of ancient cities, the project will develop a 3D model of Delos presenting the built environment and systematizing as well as analysing the complexity of information from dedicatory inscriptions of public buildings that allow studying the impact of private and public initiatives on the urban fabric. The model will tackle the multilayered processes of urban growth over time by individualizing and highlighting the forces that shaped urban form as well as inventing and visualizing counterfactual urban narratives. In this way, the project will offer an alternative model for approaching Greek and Roman cities and at the same time contribute to the development of computer applications for the study of ancient urbanism.