Settlement structures in the Hinterland of Mautern-Favianis

The goal of the project is the study of the rural settlement in the "hinterland" of Mautern-Favianis at the Austrian section of the Danube frontier. The project is based on the results of the intensive research of the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the years 1996-2005 in the auxiliary fort and its Vicus. In a defined region of approx. 700 km Roman space use and settlement structures should be investigated and analysed in a geographical information system. The data will be collected by the means of multi-level systematic field surveys as well as large scale geophysical prospections and surface artefact working. Designing an intensive intrasite surveys different rural settlement types (Vicus, Villa rustica, simple rural site) in the "hinterland" of Mautern-Favianis will be defined. An emphasis forms thereby the typochronological and chorological analysis of the archaeological findings in context with the settlement structures. Based on these data rural settlement places will be redefined and Roman land use models transferred to the landscape ("predictive modelling"). As result of the project is to be presented a monographic publication with large and small-scale structural analyses, a catalog of the sites, distribution maps, detailed plans as well as detailed analyses of the rural sites with its artefacts. Different rural sites and their economic an cultural interactions with the main places in the "hinterland" of Mautern-Favianis will be discussed.

Within the framework of the research project "Rural settlement structures in the hinterland of Mautern-Favianis" between 2007 and 2010 the study of settlement structures in an area of 700 sq km in Lower Austria (Austria) was carried out. Using a comparative, systematic surface survey, geophysical prospection and analysis of surface finds, the Roman usage of the area, the settlements and settlement structures, as well as their dynamics were studied in model fashion, and spatially evaluated by means of a Geographical Information System (GIS). The field methods selected are non-invasive and guarantee, with a relatively small group of personnel, the highest level of efficiency possible. The study area lies between the Danube, St. Pölten and Pöchlarn. It is divided into river valleys and a central plateau above the Danube. The investigation focused on the Roman period rural settlement structures of the 1st to 5th century AD. The field work was conducted in three sectors, situated in the south, east and center of the region. Within the sectors intensive and extensive surveys were carried out with the collection of surface material. Particularly heavily used sites were also investigated by geophysical surveys (magnetics, radar). The results of the field work and material evaluations allow entirely new insights into the settlement history of the natural environment from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages. Modern GIS analysis (predictive modeling, least cost path analysis, environment analysis) were combined with systematic field surveys and geophysical measurements. This combination resulted in a new image of the human occupation of this landscape area. In Roman times it was to be shown, that between the central sites (Aelium Cetium, Favianis and Arelape) a systematic network of small, village-like settlement patterns along the main roads was installed. This settlement pattern did not include the expected Roman villas (Villae rusticae). It was however the first time that a new type of settlement can be attested for this region. Its ground plan follows the so called multi-room houses, small farms, which are known in the Vici of the southeastern part of the Roman province of Noricum. This type of settlement stands in context with iron working and is an evidence of peasant subsistence farming in the hinterland of the Danube border.