The camps were part of Rome’s 200-year conquest of what it called Hispania.
The scientists found the camps using sensors, online mapping tools, and drones.
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of dozens of Roman military camps in northern Spain, ferreting out their location thousands of years later. The scientists discovered the camps, set by Roman legions during the pacification of Hispania, using a combination of online maps, satellite photography, lidar, and drones.
One of the oldest features of military life is the armed camp. Armies on the move must prepare positions to spend the night, take shelter from the elements, or train. In antiquity and even today armies typically have exacting procedures for setting temporary quarters.
Dozens of new Roman Army camp sites dating from two millennia ago have been discovered in northern Spain.
Experts used remote sensing technology to uncover the 66 camps of different sizes, which the Romans would ve used for training and shelter during one of their most infamous conflicts – the conquest of Hispania.
Researchers can identify the original location of the camps through cropmarks, depressions and faint physical traces in the land that show up in satellite images.
The 66 camps were likely active towards the end of the 200-year battle for the Iberian Peninsula – the landmass consisting of Spain and Portugal – which the Romans knew as Hispania .
| UPDATED: 14:55, Wed, Dec 23, 2020
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Archaeologists have shed new light on the Roman army killing machine, thanks to cutting-edge surveillance technology. Remote-sensing was used to pin-point dozens of new Roman Army sites on the border between modern-day Spain and Portugal.
Using different remote sensing techniques and open access datasets (mainly aerial photography, satellite imagery, and airborne LiDAR), an international team of archaeologists has discovered 66 Roman military sites of different sizes used for training and shelter in the northern fringe of the River Duero basin in León, Palencia, Burgos and Cantabria provinces of Spain.
The Roman military camp of Tortolondro in Spain. Image credit: Blanco
et al., doi: 10.3390/geosciences10120485.
The newly-discovered Roman military camps date to the Late Republic or Early Imperial eras.
They are located at the foothills of the Cantabrian Mountains, where the conflict between Romans and natives was focused at the end of the 1st century BCE.