Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilization (DARMC)

DARMC 1.3.1 (8/10/2014)

The Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilization(DARMC) makes freely available on the internet the best available materials for a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach to mapping and spatial analysis of the Roman and medieval worlds. DARMC allows innovative spatial and temporal analyses of all aspects of the civilizations of western Eurasia in the first 1500 years of our era, as well as the generation of original maps illustrating differing aspects of ancient and medieval civilization. A work in progress with no claim to definitiveness, it has been built in less than three years by a dedicated team of Harvard undergraduates, graduate students, research scholars and one professor, with some valuable contributions from younger and more senior scholars at other institutions. For more details on who we are, please see the People page...

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2014-1:
M Keil and H Hamerow 2014 - Geodatabase of Rural Anglo-Saxon Settlements
Abstract: This database presents archaeological evidence of Anglo-Saxon rural settlements in England in a format suitable for spatial analysis and visualization. It includes details about the presence of archaeological features, site occupation dates, and selected bibliographic information for 84 sites. The database was created entirely from the data presented in Hamerow 2012, which should be consulted for further information and full bibliographic references. Corrections and additions will be gratefully received by email at darmc@harvard.edu. We are grateful to Prof. Hamerow for her advice and support; all errors or shortcomings are of course our responsibility.
DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2013-6:
S Coupland 2013 - Geodatabase of Carolingian Coin Hoards: AD 751-987 (Version 1.1)
Abstract: This geodatabase is a digital edition of the data provided in Simon Coupland's 2011 "A Checklist of Carolingian Coin Hoards 751-987," which gives a comprehensive summary description of hoards containing more than three coins issued by the Carolingian dynasty and found in Europe up to the date of publication. DARMC contributors have expanded Dr. Coupland's work by adding geographic coordinates to hoard findspots and coding numeric fields to facilitate the spatial and quantitative analysis of this data. This dataset is not exhaustive of the information from Coupland 2011 and careful attention should be paid to the additional notes in the original study.
UPDATE: Version 1.1 of this study contains updated and corrected geocodes for selected sites. We are grateful for the assistance of Simon Coupland and Johan Ahlfeldt in making these improvements. As this corrected dataset supercedes all previous releases, study version 1.0 will no longer be available for download.
DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2013-5:M McCormick et al. 2013 - Roman Road Network (version 2008) [Shapefile]Abstract:This file provides a portable, digital version of the Roman roads identified in the Barrington Atlas, which users can visualize in combination with their own historical data.
DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2013-4:L Grigoli and B Maione-Downing 2013 - France: Diocese and Archdiocese Boundaries ca. 1000Abstract: This shapefile represents our best current approximation of the boundaries and provincial (or archidiocesan) organization of the bishoprics of the territory of modern France as they existed ca. 1000. The contributors have drawn on the diocesan and archdiocesan (provincial) boundaries as reported in Parisse and Leuridan 1994. 
DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2013-3: M McCormick et al. 2013 - Archaeology of Rats AD 1-1500 [Shapefile Version] Abstract: This database represents an attempt to unify reported finds of rat remains - particularly of the black rat (R. Rattus) - in archaeological contexts dated between 1 and 1500 AD, and was originally created to underpin the synthesis in McCormick 2003; it contains a few additions made since then. In recent years, historians and archaeologists have come to understand these remains to be an important proxy for the spread of disease, patterns of human migration and economic activity. When possible, attempts have been made to geocode these archaeological sites to present a database that will allow analysis of patterns over time and space. Although this database contains some records of rat finds (or potential rat finds) in contexts dated to the pre-Christian era, no attempt is made to cover these years comprehensively.
DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2013-2:A de Graauw 2014 - Geodatabase of Ancient Ports and Harbors (version 1.1)Abstract: This database presents work done by Arthur de Graauw to collect, identify and locate ancient harbours and ports. It is based on a study of existing documentation and does not aim to find unknown ports. The result is a list of around 2900 ancient ports based on the writings of 66 ancient authors and a few modern authors, incl. the Barrington Atlas. A harbour is a place where ships can seek shelter. In the concept of "shelter" must be included anchorages, landing places on beaches and ports with structures like, access channels, breakwaters, jetties, landing stages, quays, warehouses for storage of commodities and equipment, shipsheds and slipways for ships. Shelters of interest for this catalogue include all places which may have been used by seafarers sailing over long distances. This means that shelters for e.g. local fishermen who may have landed their boats on the beach in front of their homes, are of lesser interest. Only maritime harbours are listed, but some river ports that could be reached by deep sea ships are also included.
UPDATE: Version 1.1 of this study brings this geodatabase into line with the places listed in "Ancient Ports and Harbors: The Catalog" 4th ed.
DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2013-1:M McCormick et al. 2013 - Summary Geodatabase of Shipwrecks: Status 2008 [-Alternate Link-]Abstract: This summary database provides basic geographic and archaeological information on 1064 shipwrecks documented by A.J. Parker 1992 and subsequent publications. The geodatabase includes, where available, concise information about main cargoes, ship or wreck distribution sizes, ship gear, and essential bibliography. The user should refer to the original publications for full details. This file represents the state of the geodatabase in April 2008, when M. McCormick 2012 "Movements and markets in the first millennium: information, containers and shipwrecks" was sent to press; a small number of wrecks were added down to 2010. Our team continues to work toward future updates of the geodatabase of shipwrecks. Additional information, corrections, and data about new wrecks will be received gratefully at darmc@harvard.edu.
DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2012-2:M McCormick et al. 2012 - Historical Precipitation in Central Europe, AD 1013 - 1504Abstract: Climate variations influenced the agricultural productivity, health risk, and conflict level of preindustrial societies. Discrimination between environmental and anthropogenic impacts on past civilizations, however, remains difficult because of the paucity of high-resolution paleoclimatic evidence. We present tree ring–based reconstructions of central European summer precipitation and temperature variability over the past 2500 years. Recent warming is unprecedented, but modern hydroclimatic variations may have at times been exceeded in magnitude and duration. Wet and warm summers occurred during periods of Roman and medieval prosperity. Increased climate variability from ~250 to 600 C.E. coincided with the demise of the western Roman Empire and the turmoil of the Migration Period. Such historical data may provide a basis for counteracting the recent political and fiscal reluctance to mitigate projected climate change. The present geodatabase presents the details of the historical records which were used to test the accuracy of the AMJ precipitation record reconstructed from the dendrodata. See Büntgen et al. 2011, 579 and Figure 3A; and Supporting Online Material, 5.
DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2012-1:M McCormick, K Harper, A M More, K Gibson 2012 - Historical Evidence on Roman and Post-Roman Climate, 100 BC to 800 ADUpdated 8/6/2014 - Formatting Changes Abstract: Growing scientific evidence from modern climate science is loaded with implications for the environmental history of the Roman Empire and its successor societies. The written and archaeological evidence, although richer than commonly realized, is unevenly distributed over time and space. A first synthesis of what the written records and multiple natural archives (multi-proxy data) indicate about climate change and variability across western Eurasia from c. 100 B.C. to 800 A.D. confirms that the Roman Empire rose during a period of stable and favorable climatic conditions, which deteriorated during the Empire's third-century crisis. A second, briefer period of favorable conditions coincided with the Empire's recovery in the fourth century; regional differences in climate conditions parallel the diverging fates of the eastern and western Empires in subsequent centuries. Climate conditions beyond the Empire's boundaries also played an important role by affecting food production in the Nile valley, and by encouraging two major migrations and invasions of pastoral peoples from Central Asia. This geodatabase of climate events documented in and around the Roman Empire and its successor societies in ancient and early medieval written sources was created by the DARMC contributors on the basis of the secondary and primary sources cited in the geodatabase. It is not surely not exhaustive, but we hope that as such, it will already be useful to other researchers. We welcome additional evidence and corrections.

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DARMC WMS Services
DARMC offers all its databases as WMS format (Web Map Server), and REST format (Representational state transfer). You can browse the full list of DARMC WMS and REST services here: (http://cga6.cga.harvard.edu/arcgis/rest/services/darmc/roman/MapServer). If you would like to visualize the DARMC WMS in ArcGIS, plese read the ESRI Documentation for WMS.
Below few steps to get the correct DARMC WMS URL:

1. Full DARMC WMS URL( http://cga6.cga.harvard.edu/arcgis/services/darmc/roman/MapServer/WMSServer?)
2. Read the instruction provided by ESRI to add the WMS in ArcGIS.

DARMC WMS Services and WorldMap

If you would like to visualize the DARMC WMS in WorldMap (http://worldmap.harvard.edu/), please read the instruction provided in the WorldMap Help doc under Section 4 (http://worldmap.harvard.edu/site_media/docs/WorldMap_Help.pdf)