Best travel options: Modelling Roman and early-medieval routes in the Netherlands using a multi-proxy approach

Results show that in geomorphologically diverse lowland regions, such as the Netherlands, network friction is extremely useful for modelling historical route networks. We found a clear relationship between environmental conditions, settlement locations and the spatial distribution of infrastructure. Using evidence-based modelling, we were able to correctly predict the location of 89% of the currently identified Roman infrastructure, and 85% of the known early-medieval infrastructure in the Netherlands within a 1000 m buffer. Additionally, despite only roughly covering a surface area of 13% in the Roman and 11% in the early-medieval period of the Netherlands, 82% and 72% of all known isolated finds were located within the same buffer.