Connecting places

Pleiades does not currently have precise GIS-ready coordinates for the aqueduct that supplied Nemausus and CAD-grade representations of it that would permit architectural visualizations or hydraulic analysis are beyond the scope of this project. What Pleiades can express, starting now, is that the Nîmes acqueduct is geographically connected with the spring at Ura Fons, with the Pont du Gard, and ultimately with the city of Nemausus. Similarly, Pleiades can express geographic connections between rivers, ports, and unbounded bodies of water like the Ledus fl., Lattara, the Taurus/Volcarum Stagna, and the Gallicum Mare. As roads are imported into Pleiades, we will be using what structured information we have to create the same kind of connections in an automated way, forming networks and opening up some interesting avenues of discovery and exploration in Pleiades. "Connects with" does not mean only touching or adjoining, it also encompasses intersection, overlap, and containment. It is a very coarse grained relationship.

The home page for any place lists the other places it makes a connection with and, separately, the other places that make a connection with it. For places that only just connect and have no overlap or part/whole relationship, the directionality is not important. However, evolving custom is that "small" places make connections to "large" places: a bridge connects with a river, a river connects with a sea. For overlapping places, hierarchy can be suggested by exploiting directionality of the connection: a pass should make a connection with a mountain range, a tribe's chief town should make a connection with the tribe's territory.