Pau de Soto
I obtained my PhD in Classical Archaeology (2010) from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). I have specialised in the use of GIS and Network Science to analyse Roman roads and Historical transportation routes. I also realised a MSc. in Geographical Information Technologies (2012). I’m also specialised in the development of non-intrusive techniques, especially Geophysical Prospection and the use of Geographical Information Systems applied to Archaeology.
After my PhD, I have been involved in several projects at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica (ICAC), the Institut d’Estudis Regional i Metropolitans de Barcelona (IERMB), the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC), the Instituto de Arqueología de Mérida - CSIC (IAM-CSIC), the University of Southampton, and the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
My research career is mainly focused in the study and dissemination of Historical roads. After joining a Linked Open Data project (the Pelagios Project) and obtaining more than €500.000 funding as core team member, I’m strongly interested in the design of new procedures to openly and freely disseminate all the information about historical roads. Related to this topic, I’ve been awarded with 2 postdoctoral fellowships (including a Marie S. Curie) and PI of 4 different research projects (+ €300.000).
Between 2019-2021 I directed as PI an I+D+i MCIU Spanish National Project. The Viator-e Project (RTI2018-098905-J-I00) is designed to study, digitise and openly disseminate the road networks of the Western Roman Empire. This project has been extremely welcomed by researchers and institutions. The data provided by Viator-e and my previous road projects have been reused by more than 40 researchers and teams.
Since 2021, I’m a Serra Húnter Lecturer in Archaeology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
After my PhD, I have been involved in several projects at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica (ICAC), the Institut d’Estudis Regional i Metropolitans de Barcelona (IERMB), the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC), the Instituto de Arqueología de Mérida - CSIC (IAM-CSIC), the University of Southampton, and the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
My research career is mainly focused in the study and dissemination of Historical roads. After joining a Linked Open Data project (the Pelagios Project) and obtaining more than €500.000 funding as core team member, I’m strongly interested in the design of new procedures to openly and freely disseminate all the information about historical roads. Related to this topic, I’ve been awarded with 2 postdoctoral fellowships (including a Marie S. Curie) and PI of 4 different research projects (+ €300.000).
Between 2019-2021 I directed as PI an I+D+i MCIU Spanish National Project. The Viator-e Project (RTI2018-098905-J-I00) is designed to study, digitise and openly disseminate the road networks of the Western Roman Empire. This project has been extremely welcomed by researchers and institutions. The data provided by Viator-e and my previous road projects have been reused by more than 40 researchers and teams.
Since 2021, I’m a Serra Húnter Lecturer in Archaeology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
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The knowledge of infrastructure is essential to obtain a more accurate knowledge of the freight transportation. Therefore the first part of this work has been presented to study the communications network of the Catalan territory. The lack of previous studies which globally, thoroughly and systematically treated the whole set of communications on this Roman territory, forced to devote a significant part of this project precisely to the gathering, documentation, analysis and digitization of Romanian communications. This project has taken into account while analyzing the whole infrastructure of Roman roads which existed in Roman times, whether through land environment, river or sea.
Hence, the knowledge of infrastructure and working of transport has been used as a basis for interpreting the economic particularities of the north east region of Tarragona in Roman times. The results of this thesis has been, therefore, developing a model of the commercial movement which can help to a better understanding of the economic and political peculiarities of this region and to provide with new answers to the questions about mobility in Roman times as it might be the distribution of archaeological material in Catalonia.
The simulation results have allowed to obtain, with quantified data, assessment of costs and time needed to transport goods from different parts of the Catalan territory. Quantification of transport costs is an indispensable tool to justify if the archaeological record follows, for example, patterns of market strategies or on the contrary it is being influenced by other elements such as a state grant to finance all or part of the transportation costs. In fact, it can be understood that this work has attempted to first evaluate numerically the particularities of the Roman communications in Catalonia. Moving away from more or less intuitive perceptions or assumptions, the results of this study provide an estimated quantification of transport costs in terms of a market system. As it has been seen throughout the whole work, coincidences or differences between the model and the archaeological documentation allow to indicate peculiarities of the system.
Papers
The knowledge of infrastructure is essential to obtain a more accurate knowledge of the freight transportation. Therefore the first part of this work has been presented to study the communications network of the Catalan territory. The lack of previous studies which globally, thoroughly and systematically treated the whole set of communications on this Roman territory, forced to devote a significant part of this project precisely to the gathering, documentation, analysis and digitization of Romanian communications. This project has taken into account while analyzing the whole infrastructure of Roman roads which existed in Roman times, whether through land environment, river or sea.
Hence, the knowledge of infrastructure and working of transport has been used as a basis for interpreting the economic particularities of the north east region of Tarragona in Roman times. The results of this thesis has been, therefore, developing a model of the commercial movement which can help to a better understanding of the economic and political peculiarities of this region and to provide with new answers to the questions about mobility in Roman times as it might be the distribution of archaeological material in Catalonia.
The simulation results have allowed to obtain, with quantified data, assessment of costs and time needed to transport goods from different parts of the Catalan territory. Quantification of transport costs is an indispensable tool to justify if the archaeological record follows, for example, patterns of market strategies or on the contrary it is being influenced by other elements such as a state grant to finance all or part of the transportation costs. In fact, it can be understood that this work has attempted to first evaluate numerically the particularities of the Roman communications in Catalonia. Moving away from more or less intuitive perceptions or assumptions, the results of this study provide an estimated quantification of transport costs in terms of a market system. As it has been seen throughout the whole work, coincidences or differences between the model and the archaeological documentation allow to indicate peculiarities of the system.