Restituting Roman Aqueduct Hydraulic Systems: A Bibliometric Analysis for Methodological Strategy Applied to the Left-Bank Aqueduct of Tiklat

Abstract

Roman aqueducts represent some of the most sophisticated hydraulic infrastructures of antiquity and constitute major components of Mediterranean cultural heritage. Research on Roman aqueducts and hydraulic systems has recently evolved through methodological advances in geophysics, digital modelling, and hydraulic simulation. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of publications indexed in Scopus that focus on the restitution of  Roman aqueducts and their hydraulic systems. The corpus was analysed using descriptive statistics, co-authorship mapping, keyword co-occurrence, and co-citation networks. Results show a marked increase in publication output since 2018, reflecting growing interdisciplinarity and methodological innovation. The field remains rooted in Arts and Humanities but increasingly incorporates Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, and Engineering. Co-authorship and co-citation analyses reveal collaborative clusters and a stable intellectual core. Despite these advances, geographical coverage is uneven and methodological standardisation remains limited. The study highlights opportunities for enhanced integration of hydraulic modelling, digital reconstruction, and socio-territorial interpretation, providing strategic guidance for future research in archaeology and Roman aqueduct restitution, it also contributes to the development of interdisciplinary protocols applicable to hydraulic archaeological systems. This bibliometric analysis provides a strategic framework for orienting ongoing and future investigations, it also guides the methodological decision-making applied on the case of the Roman aqueduct of Tiklat (Tubusuptu).