Lost and found: Roman surveying of municipal territories on the northern Adriatic islands, Croatia

The introduction of airborne laser scanning (ALS) technology in the Mediterranean region over the past decade has significantly increased opportunities for archaeological research. Archaeological remote sensing has proven to be a versatile tool with numerous applications beyond simple site mapping. One approach is the large-scale interpretation of ALS data, which allows for the analysis of the stratigraphic information contained within the data. This is particularly useful for analysing the rich remains of past land use in the karst landscapes of coastal Croatia. The Roman dry stone walls of the Kvarner islands of Krk and Cres serve as an example. These structures outline the framework backbone of Roman surveying; however, due to their poor state of preservation, many remains can only be identified through ALS data rather than aerial photography. An absolute chronology for these features was established using the OSL profiling and dating method (OSL-PD), providing a date range of AD 200 ± 100. These results can be considered the first clear evidence of surveying municipal lands on the Croatian islands.