Ricerc@Sapienza

The present article exposes the potential of a geo-archaeological approach in revealing the diversity of settlement strategies within the colonized areas according to an intramountainous landscape conditions.It attempts to understand the Roman expansion in the valley of Wadi Abiod, an important fluvial artery in the eastern Atlas based onthe reconstruction and analysis of ancient roads systems.

The reconstruction of ancient road systems is one of the main topics of historical geography, but the possibility of tracing ancient routes, which formed pathways of cultural, economic and political interchange, often clashes with scanty historical and archaeological sources, especially in those cases in which even the identification of ancient toponyms remains doubtful.