The shared scientific interests of the RoLand project researchers and their international colleagues have led to collaboration with Assistant Professor Candace M. Rice, PhD, from the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University (USA), and Andrew McLean, PhD, postdoctoral researcher at the Institut Català d'Arqueologia Clàssica (Spain). The signing of a cooperation agreement between the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula and the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, has established the foundation for joint research efforts.

In May 2024, this collaboration materialized in the joint investigation of the Roman oil mill at Barbariga, currently the largest known olive oil production facility in the European part of the Roman Empire.

The Istrian Peninsula was renowned in antiquity for the production of olive oil and wine, as well as for the manufacture of amphorae that transported these products across the Empire. However, our understanding of the nature and scale of this production remains limited due to uneven investigation and publication of production sites.

The collaboration will focus on exploring agricultural and ceramic production at local, regional, and broader regional levels through combined methods, including geophysical surveys, ceramic and archaeobotanical analyses, and stratigraphic excavations. The aim is to provide chronological and spatial data to understand the numerous effects of, on the one hand, the integration of Istria into the wider economic flows of the Roman world, and on the other, the impact of agricultural land exploitation on the transformation and interpretation of the ancient landscape.