Archaeological sites in the Trajan's Gate Pass, Bulgaria (according to data from the Ottoman period and modern archaeological research)

The dataset provides geospatial data related to the area surrounding the Trajan’s Gate Pass in western Bulgaria.
The dataset includes archaeological sites, selected modern populated places, historic road and river features, a digital elevation model (DEM), and a viewshed raster generated from a historically significant vantage point. It is intended to support archaeological, historical, geographical, and spatial analysis research of the region.

All vector data is stored in a single GeoPackage file, while the DEM and derived viewshed are provided as GeoTIFF rasters.
A QGIS project file is included to facilitate immediate visualization and exploration of the dataset.
A separate reference list provides bibliographic information for works cited in the attribute tables.

Contents

• Vector data (tgp.gpkg)

  • Archaeological sites in the Trajan’s Gate Pass

  • Selected modern populated places

  • Selected rivers

  • Ottoman road trace between Ihtiman and Plovdiv

  • Viewpoint used for viewshed analysis

• Raster data

  • EU DTM 30 digital elevation model (30 m resolution)

  • Viewshed raster derived from the DEM

• Project file

  • QGIS project (tgp.qgz) with preconfigured visualization

• Reference list

  • Works cited by the dataset

Coordinate Reference System

All spatial data is provided in
ETRS89 / LAEA Europe (EPSG:3035).

Viewshed Analysis

The viewshed raster was generated in QGIS (v. 3.22 “Białowieża”) using the Processing “Viewshed” tool from the viewpoint included in the dataset.
The DEM used is the EU DTM 30 dataset (30 m resolution).

DEM Spatial Extent

(xmin, ymin : xmax, ymax)
5440980.0000, 2189650.0000 : 5572170.0000, 2294740.0000
(CRS: EPSG 3035)

Usage

Open the QGIS project file (tgp.qgz) to explore the dataset.
All file paths are relative; keep all files together in the same directory so the project loads correctly.

Fonts

If desired, users may adjust labeling fonts in the QGIS project according to preference.

Applications

This dataset may be useful for:

• Archaeological and historical research

• Landscape and visibility analysis

• Historical GIS studies

• Teaching and demonstration

• Cartographic visualization

License

This dataset is released under the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
Users are free to share and adapt the dataset for any purpose, provided appropriate credit is given.