The dataset is a result of the project entitled “Travel and Mobility in Hellenistic and Early Roman Palestine,” which is financed by the National Science Centre in Poland (grant no. UMO-2020/38/E/HS3/00031).

The file entitled “Ancient roads” contains polyline vector data representing the course of ancient roads in the research area. It was created using old topographic maps that had been georeferenced. Due to the imperfection of the cartometric sources, location errors can be up to several hundred meters. The native spatial reference of the dataset is WGS-84 (EPSG: 4326). The data contain information about their source as an attribute.

The file entitled “Iron Age roads” contains polyline vector data representing the course of Iron Age roads in the Dead Sea catchment area. It was created using archeological data and verified using remote sensing techniques based on high resolution imagery. The native spatial reference of the dataset is WGS-84 (EPSG: 4326). The data contain the following attributes: names of roads, dating, length, width, elevation, minimum Z, maximum Z, mean Z, minimum slope, maximum slope, and average slope.

The file entitled “Least Cost Corridors” contains polygon vector data representing the course of the Least Cost Corridors calculated between toparchies in the kingdom of Herod the Great (excluding waterborne travel). It was created using a digital elevation model with a spatial resolution of 30 meters.

The file entitled “Least Cost Paths” contains polygon vector data representing the course of the Least Cost Paths calculated between toparchies in the kingdom of Herod the Great (excluding waterborne travel). It was created using a digital elevation model with a spatial resolution of 30 meters.

The file entitled “Ottoman roads” contains polyline vector data representing the course of Ottoman roads in the research area. It was created using old topographic maps that had been georeferenced. Due to the imperfection of the cartometric sources, location errors can be up to several hundred meters. The native spatial reference of the dataset is WGS-84 (EPSG: 4326). The data contain information about their source and road importance as attributes.

The file entitled “Roman Imperial Roads” contains polyline vector data representing the course of Roman Imperial Roads in the research area. It was created using old topographic maps that had been georeferenced. Due to the imperfection of the cartometric sources, location errors can be up to several hundred meters. The native spatial reference of the dataset is WGS-84 (EPSG: 4326). The data contain information about their source as an attribute.

The file entitled “Sailing Least Cost Paths” contains polyline vector data representing the course of the Least Cost Paths (including waterborne travel) calculated between toparchies in the kingdom of Herod the Great. It was created using a digital elevation model with a spatial resolution of 30 meters.

The file entitled “Sailing Least Cost Corridors” contains polyline vector data representing the course of the Least Cost Corridors (including waterborne travel) calculated between toparchies in the kingdom of Herod the Great. It was created using a digital elevation model with a spatial resolution of 30 meters.

The file entitled “Herodian toparchies” contains point vector data representing the locations of toparchies during the reign of Herod the Great. It was created using historical and archeological data and verified using remote sensing techniques based on high resolution imagery. The native spatial reference of the dataset is WGS-84 (EPSG: 4326). The data contain the names of toparchies as an attribute. In the case of three toparchies (Thamna, Amathus, and Livias), the locations are doubled due to their uncertainty (two possible variants).

The dataset contains results of GIS research in the project entitled “Travel and Mobility in Hellenistic and Early Roman Palestine,” which is financed by the National Science Centre in Poland (grant no. UMO-2020/38/E/HS3/00031).