(Dr Roger White & Dr Vince Gaffney)
The Wroxeter Hinterland Project (1994-9) aimed to measure the impact of the foundation of the major Roman city of Viroconium on its locale. To achieve this, a vast array of archaeological, geological and topographic data was collected and manipulated via the project÷s GIS software to produce maps demonstrating the spread of Roman material culture into the surrounding landscape. A vital component of this was the geophysical survey of Wroxeter itself. When the project started, the 180 acres (78 hectares) of the town appeared half-empty. The town was thus believed to be a failure. By undertaking a very large-scale geophysical survey of the city, using a wide array of different technologies including magnetometry, resistivity and ground penetrating radar, a significant increase in the density of settlement within the city was achieved. The mapping and processing of these data were sponsored by the RRT, resulting in initial publication of the results in Archaeological Prospection (June 2000). Final publication will be in the Wroxeter Atlas, the second volume of the Wroxeter Hinterland Report.
View an interpretation of the geophysical results.
