Ave Valley Survey Project, Porto, Portugal
This archive presents the results of a field survey undertaken between 1994 and 1997. The survey set-out to examine a sample area of the landscape in northern Portugal with the primary objective of examining the impact of Roman annexation on the indigenous landscape of a region which had a sophisticated Pre-Roman Iron Age culture. The original aim was thus to undertake a survey which would produce results for direct comparison with those produced by the Ager Tarraconsenis survey which had recently been completed (Carreté et al. 1995).
The research design for the project is summarized in several interim publications (Millett and Queiroga 1995). The area selected for the survey comprised part of the basin of the Rio Ave which is the located in Entre-Douro-e-Minho region of northern Portugal. The region lies on the Atlantic seaboard of the Iberian peninsula at a latitude of 41° 30' North. The Rio Ave discharges into the Atlantic at Vila do Conde c. 20km north of Porto. The survey area itself comprised a zone c. 20km wide running inland from the coast, bounded to the south by the Rio Ave and to the north by the Rio Cávado. The survey comprised fieldwalking to systematically collect ceramic material, and geophysical survey of selected areas where ceramic densities were high. From the results of fieldwalking, different fabric lists for pottery and tile were produced from comparison of the constituent parts of different ceramics. Densities of pottery and tile were then entered into a GIS to display high densities based on the higher range or top percentile of fabrics.Comparison of known catalogued settlement locations and the data derived from ceramic densities resulted in a more structured and detailed knowledge of the pre-Roman and Roman distribution of settlement, continuity of habitation and social interaction.
The publication of the survey report is available from
