Port as a complex system of relationships: some preliminary notes on the Roman cases of Altinum and Iulia Concordia

The Roman cities of Altinum and Iulia Concordia, located near the ancient lagoons of Venice and Caorle in the Northern Adriatic region (Italy), played a key role in connecting river, lagoon and sea trade. They were inland port cities with distinctive features, surrounded and crossed by a network of natural and artificial waterways, along which quays and storehouses were established. According to recent interpretative models, ports are systems composed of three areas, shaped by interactions with their users, namely goods and boats. This paper presents an ongoing research project that examines the inland ports of Altinum and Iulia Concordia from this perspective. Current investigations combine archival research to gather published and unpublished excavation data; a coring campaign providing crucial evidence on paleochannels, essential for navigation analysis; and the development of a GIS framework to integrate heterogeneous datasets. Collectively, these efforts enable the reconstruction of port spaces and mark a first step toward understanding how the two port systems functioned.