On holiday in the UK, and starting out in London. This amazing city is littered with history and a great place to put it all in perspective is the Museum of London. What’s immediately learned is that human history in London and environs spans millennia. There are numerous moments in time that may come to mind but one of keen interest to me was the Roman period—Britannia was Rome’s most forward realm and Londinium at its height reached an estimated 60,000 inhabitants. Like other Roman fortified places, Londinium was surrounded by a Roman wall. However, as the far flung empire was unraveling, Roman troops and Roman energy disappeared early in the 5th century AD. Londinium faded…but not entirely.
Using ArcGIS Explorer, we can put a geographic face on historic Roman London within a current day context. Launching ArcGIS Explorer I needed a London road network to begin. Loading the “Streets” map, I zoomed myself to London using the “Find Place” task. Next using my Web browser, I searched on the term—“Roman London map.” Pay dirt! I found several but the best was a map superimposing old Londinium on current day London geography and roads.
Using this map, and the heads-up digitizing capacity of the “Create Notes” task, I crafted a polygon outline to depict the Roman city…but I needed a starting point. The online map showed that the Roman wall split the geography of the current-day “Tower of London.” Using a forthcoming “GeoNames Search” task, I searched for and found the “Tower” placing it on my map. With this as foundation and the online map and current road network as guides, I traced a polygon boundary for Roman London. Since I was touring the Museum of London, I decided I should add a location for it too. Also, the source of this inspiration was right outside the museum—remnants of the ancient Roman wall. With camera in hand, I grabbed a picture and added it as a local attribute of another note. The shot below summarizes the process.
By the way, I’m really close to 0.00 longitude. More to come!
- George Dailey, ESRI Education Manager
