Ancient Routes Research Articles

Pilgrimage in a Globalizing World

Whether on the Camino de Santiago or the Hajj, today’s pilgrims tread ancient routes of religious ritual, but their experiences are mediated by modern infrastructures and mentalities.

The Pulborough Gold Torc: a 4th to 3rd century BCE artefact of European significance

Two fragments of a decorated buffer terminal torc were found in 2019 near Pulborough, West Sussex. The simplicity of the design belies the complexity of the construction of this hollow, gold alloy neck-ring. The overall shape is that of 4th to 3rd century BCE buffer terminal torcs found in western Europe, particularly France, Germany and Belgium. The terminal and neck-ring are decorated with filigree made from block-twisted wire soldered to the surface of the sheet metal parts. Filigree ornament is unusual in this shape of torc but is known from other varieties of torc and contemporary gold objects found on the Continent. The location of this find, towards the south coast of England along ancient routes of Atlantic and cross-channel contact and trade, is intriguing given the disparate influences seen in the design. This is not the first buffer terminal torc discovered in England; its discovery is preceded by both gold and copper-alloy versions, but it stands out for its individual style and decorative effect. After its discovery and reporting to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the torc was subject to analysis and examination, confirming it qualified as Treasure under the stipulations of the Treasure Act 1996. The Sussex Archaeological Society acquired the torc in 2023 for the Barbican House Museum, Lewes, Sussex. Further detailed technical examination of the torc was carried out on their behalf at the British Museum and is described here.

The Influence of Horses and Grass on the Formation and Development of Core Cities on the Silk Road

The Silk Road has long attracted researchers from various fields, sparking their interest in ancient cities and the ancient route that connected civilizations. However, the role of horses and grass in the development of the Silk Road has been relatively understudied. This essay presents a novel perspective, revealing the significance of horses and grass in shaping the growth of nomadic cultures and their profound impact on the formation and development of cities along the Silk Road. Through an examination of Persepolis and Samarkand, this paper analyzes the intricate relationship between horses, grass, and the Silk Road. As a means of transportation, horses' agility and endurance allowed merchants and travelers to traverse vast distances, connecting civilizations and promoting economic and cultural exchanges. The abundant grasslands along the Silk Road corridor shaped the way of life and livelihood of nomadic tribes, providing sustenance for their horses. Nomadic tribes acted as intermediaries, facilitating trade between settled civilizations. This facilitated the establishment of trade routes and the emergence of prosperous urban centers. Therefore, the symbiotic relationship between horses, grass, and nomadic tribes played a crucial role in the development and prosperity of the Silk Road.

From Ancient Paths to Modern Highways: Mapping the Evolution of World Trade Routes and their Crucial Role in Today's Global Supply Chains Gaurav Dangre

From Ancient Paths to Modern Highways: Mapping the Evolution of World Trade Routes and their Crucial Role in Today's Global Supply Chains Gaurav Dangre

Study on the origin of the Baise horse based on whole-genome resequencing.

The Baise horse, an indigenous horse breed mainly distributed in the Baise region of Guangxi province in southwest China, has a long history as draft animal. However, there is a lack of research regarding the origin and ancestral composition of the Baise horse. In this study, whole-genome resequencing data from 236 horses of seven Chinese indigenous horse breeds, five foreign horse breeds, and four Przewalski's horses were used to investigate the relationships between the Baise horse and other horse breeds. The results showed that foreign horse breeds had no significant impact on the formation of the Baise horse. The two southwestern horse populations, the Debao pony and the Jinjiang horse, exhibit the closest genetic affinity with the Baise horse. This is consistent with their adjacent geographical distribution. Analysis of the migration route revealed a gene flow from the Chakouyi horse into the Baise horse. In summary, our results confirm that the formation of the Baise horse did not involve participation from foreign breeds. Geographical distance emerges as a crucial factor in determining the genetic relationships with the Baise horse. Gene flows of indigenous horse breeds along ancient routes of trade activities had played a role in the formation of the Baise horse.

Research on the Discovery and Inheritance of the Cultural Genes of Traditional Villages along the Guangxi Xiaohe Ancient Route

Research on the Discovery and Inheritance of the Cultural Genes of Traditional Villages along the Guangxi Xiaohe Ancient Route

Aemila Scauri Aurelia

Can a road, with its branches, be considered sustainable and be so important for a territory that it has always influenced its evolution and that of its inhabitants over the centuries? The main purpose of the research is to clarify how a road, via Aemilia Scauri – Aurelia, can become a symbol of culture and social identity of a territory, the Tigullio, through the centuries and millennia, investigating the visible material remains of the Roman and of medieval times. The Tigullio land is a part of Liguria in the so-called Levante Ligure, east of Genoa; enclosed between the sea and the mountains, this strip of land overlooks the Golfo del Tigullio which is part of the Ligurian Sea. Its landscape is predominantly mountainous, a feature that has always influenced the inhabitants, settlements, and roads. A complex study due to the paucity of archaeological finds, destroyed or buried under centuries of reconstruction, and the almost total absence of quotations from ancient scholars. Other problems are related to the lack of memories of the inhabitants of the area as they are mostly unaware of their historical past. Few ancient structures to understand how a road can be defined as important and sustainable for the people who have inhabited the area over the centuries, it is necessary to retrace the ancient route, identifying the few signs of the past that are still visible.

Modeling a key limes: Least-cost and spatial analysis to uncover a Roman intramountainous path in the Aures, Algeria

The present paper investigates the contribution of modern archaeology techniques in affirming a hypothesis on a Roman road in a territory long considered isolated. The adopted approach seeks to emphasize the chrono-historical potential of the Wadi Abiod valley in the Aures (Saharan Atlas), despite its geoenvironmental conditions being not well understood, using new and more in-depth studies to support Roman archaeological research. Accordingly, this work applies an integrated approach of research-combined methodologies, and technologies linked to the least-cost path (LCP) modeling on an archaeological case study previously analyzed using the typo-morphological circuit modeling, with a review of the pros and cons of these methods for the understanding of past movement. The research delivers new insights into the Roman expansion mechanisms in the valley, enhancing the idea of rediscovering the Roman limes and taking a multidisciplinary approach that explores the complex relationships between classical and modern analysis. The paper highlights the necessity of interconnecting multi-source information to reconstruct ancient routes, considering the geoenvironmental and cultural influence of ridgeways in shaping past mobility.

We Story the Land: Exploring Mi'kmaq food sovereignty, Indigenous law and treaty relations

ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between Indigenous Food Sovereignty and the resurgence of Indigenous law through an examination of the Mi'kmaq concept of Netukulimk. We present a case study of L'sɨtkuk First Nation's exploration of the original spirit and intent of the eighteenth-century Peace and Friendship Treaties and their enactment of the Mi'kmaq always those treaties are anchored in, focusing on insights coming out of We Story the Land, our documentary film about L'sɨtkuk youth and their mentors on a canoe journey to reclaim a series of ancient routes leaving from the reserve to cross their traditional territory.

An ancient route towards salicylic acid and its implications for the perpetual Trichormus-Azolla symbiosis.

Despite its small size, the water fern Azolla is a giant among plant symbioses. Within each of its leaflets, a specialized leaf cavity is home to a population of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria (cyanobionts). Although a number of plant-cyanobiont symbioses exist, Azolla is unique in that its symbiosis is perpetual: the cyanobionts are inherited during sexual and vegetative propagation. What underpins the communication between the two partners? In angiosperms, the phytohormone salicylic acid (SA) is a well-known regulator of plant-microbe interactions. Using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, we pinpoint the presence of SA in the fern. Comparative genomics and phylogenetics on SA biosynthesis genes across Chloroplastida reveal that the entire Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase-dependent pathway likely existed in the last common ancestor of land plants. Indeed, Azolla filiculoides secondarily lost its isochorismate synthase but has the genetic competence to derive SA from benzoic acid; the presence of SA in artificially cyanobiont-free Azolla supports the existence of this route. Global gene expression data and SA levels from cyanobiont-containing and -free A. filiculoides link SA synthesis with the symbioses: SA appears to induce cyanobacterial proliferation, whereas removal of the symbiont results in reduced SA levels in a nitrogen-dependent manner.

The Role of the Road in Settling a Mountainous Region

Abstract Although fertile soil is rare in central Slovakia, the region is rich in raw minerals, a resource exploited since the Palaeolithic. Maintaining trade through a reliable network of safe routes across the mountainous landscape was of vital importance, and the remains of roads that connected this mining area to the rest of the world can still be found. Furthermore, the south–north route connecting these resources with the Carpathian Basin in the south and the Vistula River Basin in the north may have played an important role as a possible bypass to the well-known Amber Road. By combining walkthrough surveys and high-resolution LiDAR data, the paths of single roads can be reconstructed and analysed in relation to the main routes. Furthermore, by applying the geographic information system-based spatial context of settlement structures, analyses can be performed on whether routes passing through certain areas caused the establishment of settlements or whether the routes were built to connect the established sites with the rest of the road network. Finally, defining ancient route planning strategies can help answer the question of how the main routes affect settlement patterns.

THE OLDEST TRANSPORT ARTERY OF SCYTHIA (Lower Hypanis — middle course of Borysthenes Track)

The article examines the connection between the archaeological sites of the pre-Scythian and Scythian times and the key watersheds of Right Bank Ukraine, as routes of potential overland communications that used to move goods in ancient times. One of the impetuses for turning to this topic was the discovery of four archaic amphorae (one whole from Klazomenai, others from Lesbos) at the recently discovered Khotynets hillfort in Poland, which is located in the extreme west of the country of the Early Iron Age hillforts of southern Eastern Europe. These finds of amphora containers in the area of Vyshnia and San valleys convincingly testify that trade caravans could reach this distant region from the Black Sea coast using only the land route. For its time, land communications were optimal, as they provided relatively reliable movement with a heavy load, along a path practically devoid of sharp descents and ascents.
 Key attention in the article is given to one of the most ancient routes that connected the northern coast of the Black Sea with settlement structures in the Middle Dnieper region. The extreme points in this transport system were pre-Scythian hillforts — Dykii Sad located at the confluence of the Ingul and Southern Bug rivers and its potential northern partner Subotivske in the Tiasmin basin. During the Scythian rule in the Black Sea steppes, this route continued to be actively used. However, over time, the final trade terminals changed, and the route of trade caravans remained. Merchants from Olbia and the harbors of the northern coast of the Black Sea used the eastern edge of the Southern Bug basin as a reliable route to the fortified settlement structures of the forest-steppe Right Bank, among them Matronynske and the Trakhtemyrivske hillforts.
 Given the shallow depths near the coast of Olbia, the authors consider the harbour of the little-explored ancient hillfort of Hlyboka Prystan as a likely place for unloading sea vessels with a deep draft. From this harbour opened a convenient way to the hillforts of the Forest Steppe, just using the oldest transport artery of Scythia.

A new governance model for the conservation and enhancement of Italian ancient transhumance routes

Transhumance routes mark the natural path followed by herds during their seasonal movements. These routes are disappearing in many European countries. In Italy, a few fragments survive in Molise, in southern Italy, called Tratturi and run along grassy paths. The Tratturi are considered to be of archaeological, economic and landscape interest, sources of cultural and environmental attraction, protected by a national law. However, the landscapes connected to the Tratturi are disappearing both as a consequence of non-use and as a consequence of the advancement of wooded areas, and this poses a problem related to the governance system that involves many stakeholders, both at international, national and local level. The study, through the use of the combined approach of Stakeholder Basic Analysis and Social Network Analysis, identifies the role of the stakeholders involved, their power, their interest and their ability to support the decision-making system. Furthermore, the paper uses multivariate statistical analysis to detect the key stakeholders. A new model of governance, allowing to preserve the Tratturi and to enhance the services they can provide, is introduced, and it is named Authority for the Conservation and Enhancement of Tratturi (ACET). This study can help to identify appropriate management models for ancient routes based on all stakeholders involved, and more generally to implement shared and co-responsible planning choices in socio-ecological systems.

Reconstructing the ancient route network in the Thailand–Cambodia borders: A case study of the Angkorian Royal Road

AbstractA large number of ancient remnants from the Angkor kingdom of the 15th–19th centuries are widely observable across present day north‐eastern Thailand and Cambodia. Archaeologically, these features represent the ancient communities and were possibly connected according to various socioeconomic reasons. In order to reconstruct the route of human mobility between the remains, the geographic information system (GIS)‐based least cost path (LCP) analysis was employed along the Angkor–Phimai route. By recognizing the geographic parameters, the mobility of 292 moated sites was tracked to eight mountain passes that traverse the barrier of the Dângrêk Mountain Range. The LCP‐derived routes revealed that the Ta Muen pass was the most suitable (shortest source‐to‐site distance) route for almost all moated sites. When compared with a previous interpretation of the Angkorian Royal Road route, our LCP route conforms reasonably well when overlaid with this possible Royal Road. The locations of ancient activities were also in the vicinity of the dense LCP route, and most monuments were located within a 1.5 km buffer line. This underlines that the LCP track obtained in this study is reasonable with a high reliability and is beneficial for guiding further studies to find out more about the ancient remains or archaeological evidence in this area.

Il sistema informativo territoriale della “Carta del rischio del patrimonio culturale italiano” e i siti UNESCO italiani: un processo virtuoso per il monitoraggio della vulnerabilità dei beni patrimonio mondiale

The territorial information system was born following the Law of 19 April 1990, n. 84 (in Gazz. Uff., 26 April, n. 96), as an organic plan for the inventory, cataloging and elaboration of the Risk Charter for cultural heritage: first interventions. The system implements the pilot plan for the planned conservation of the cultural heritage of Umbria, a study promoted by Giovanni Urbani, then director of the Central Institute of Restoration. The Risk Map is a GIS composed of an alphanumeric database and the cartographic component, capable of exploring, superimposing and processing information relating to potential territorial and environmental risk factors linked to cultural heritage. The Risk Card system has two levels of risk. The first relates the concentration of assets and the danger of the territory, in order to evaluate, following a calamitous event, the probability of loss of the cultural heritage (Territorial risk). The second, on the other hand, evaluates the risk of loss of the individual cultural property and is implemented through the filing on the field of the vulnerability of cultural assets (evidenced by the state of conservation) and the relationship with the territorial danger around the property (Local risk). The CdR system produces and exposes the data present with WMS services (raster data), architectural and archaeological real estate (punctual, linear and polygonal), underwater archaeological files, historical centers and aggregated urban units of historical centers. It also has WFS services (vector data) of architectural and archaeological real estate (punctual, linear and polygonal), containers of movable goods (punctual), historical centers and aggregated urban units of historical centers. Since 2012, the Risk Charter has been in the interoperability of the Ministry of Culture within the territorial computerized system Constraints in the network, with which it increases the registry and georeferencing of cultural assets present for various reasons in the SigecWeb (ICCD) and Protected Assets systems (DG ABAP). Thanks to the agreement signed between the Service II - UNESCO Office of the General Secretariat and the Directorate General for Security of the Ministry of Culture, the system will be used for the assessment of the territorial risk of Italian UNESCO sites, but also, for the first time, to support the request for registration of a site on the World Heritage List. This is the candidacy of the “Via Appia. Regina Viarum "for which, with the support of ISPRA, the levels of territorial danger will be analyzed in detail, with reference to both natural disasters (earthquake, landslides, etc.) and to problems deriving from simple atmospheric agents and from pollution. In addition, the data on the state of conservation of the ancient route and the assets related to it will be collected with the appropriate cards of the Risk Card, which will allow the processing of vulnerability indicators and local risk indicators, which will be proposed to the UNESCO for monitoring the site over time.

Yury N. Roerich on the Spread of Indian Visual Images along the Great Silk Road

The paper discusses the studies of Yury N. Roerich (1902–1960) in the field of Central Asian art. In his opinion, the Great Silk Road should be considered not only as a caravan road providing trade routes between the countries of the ancient and medieval world, but also as an important arterial system of cultural interchange. The Kushan Empire, founded by the Tochars, who adopted Buddhism as the dominant religion, played a special role in the development of the art of the Great Silk Road region. Buddhism began to spread along the arteries of the Great Silk Road, forming a belt of Buddhist culture of great extent, based on Indian art, rethought by the masters of local traditions. According to Yury N. Roerich, this process should be considered a unique historical and cultural phenomenon. In 1923–1928 Yury N. Roerich made a great journey as a member of his father’s Central Asian expedition. Part of the expedition ran along the ancient routes of the Great Silk Road. During the expedition, the scholar managed to explore dozens of Buddhist art masterpieces, described, and photographed some of them. Yury Roerich believed that Central Asia, the Western and Eastern Turkestan regions became a kind of melting pot, where the interconnected and synthesized Indian, Iranian, and Chinese artistic styles, influencing the Buddhist art of Tibet, as well as the Chinese art of the 13th–14th centuries of Yuan and Ming Dynasties.

Climatic shifts, geomorphic change, ancient routes of migration and adaption in southwestern China: Site formation processes at Luojiaba, Sichuan Province

AbstractArchaeologists frequently invoke climate change as a driving cause for ancient expansions of human populations, but geomorphic changes can also play an important role in opening or closing routes of migration. In China, archaeological evidence demonstrates that valleys in the Jialing River's watershed were important routes for the movement of Neolithic populations from the catchments of the Yellow River to the Yangtze River. Here, we examine how fluvial geomorphological regime shifts may have also influenced the migration pathways and adaptive strategies of Neolithic people into the Sichuan Basin by using a combination of sedimentological and palynological analysis at Luojiaba, an archaeological site located on one of the eastern tributaries of the Jialing River. The results show that people settled on seasonally stable landforms, including the Zhonghe River floodplain at Luojiaba (5300–4800 cal. B.P.). They carried out fishing and hunting activities on the front edge of the floodplain close to the river channel and built dwelling features on the higher ground at the back edge of the floodplain, which was not affected by seasonal floods. We hypothesize that during the Holocene Climatic Optimum before 5500 cal. B.P., high water levels as well as severe surface erosion caused by a strong East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) blocked pathways into the upper reaches of the Jialing River watershed. Only after a series of cold, dry climate events driven by a decrease in EASM intensity ca. 5500–5000 cal. B.P. did water levels recede significantly. This allowed alluvial aggradation to occur, which created floodplains and terraces along the valley that may have opened a new route for the migration into the Sichuan Basin. Our results reveal the human–environment dynamics surrounding Luojiaba in the uplands of southwestern China and highlight the impact of coupled climatic‐geomorphic regime shifts on human settlement and subsistence strategies, across both space and time.

Mosque‒Dār al-Imāra Complex at ʿAnjar

Located in a corner of the Biqāʿ Valley, midway along the ancient route linking Beirut to Damascus, ʿAnjar remains one of the most significant—though least understood—Umayyad foundations in Greater Syria. With a plan shaped in strict accordance with the criteria of Hippodamian urbanism, the town constitutes a unique trait d’union between the classical urban tradition and the foundations of the early Islamic empire. This notwithstanding, and despite the importance of the site having been recognized and emphasized by many scholars, its origins, history, purpose, and patronage remain major enigmas in the field. This paper will discuss some insights surfaced from an analysis of the mosque‒dār al-imāra complex in ʿAnjar with the aim to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the site’s use and meaning in the Marwānid period.

A common-sense approach to the problem of the itinerary stadion

Estimating the length of the Greek stadion remains controversial. This paper highlights the pitfalls of a purely metrological approach to this problem and proposes a formal differentiation between metrologically defined ancient measuring units and other measures used to estimate long distances. The common-sense approach to the problem is strengthened by some cross-over documentary evidence for usage of the so-called itinerary stadion in antiquity. We discuss the possibility of using statistical analysis methods to estimate the length of the stadion by comparing ancient routes with the actual distances. Simple numerical examples explain the limits of this approach, caused by the low number of data and by their mixed character. A special case of distances which can be calculated with the help of coordinates given in Ptolemy’s Geography is discussed, and has been shown to lead unavoidably to ambiguous solutions.

Ancient routes, new gateways: a systematic literature review of China's cultural route heritage

PurposeThe study aims to understand how cultural route heritage is conceptualized and managed in China by systematically reviewing the research literature on Chinese cultural route heritage (CRH). The study intends to inspire further discussion on the theoretical and practical development of cultural routes since the development is still at a liminal stage in China.Design/methodology/approachA total of 253 research articles related to Chinese cultural rote heritage from major Chinese and English research databases China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus have been comprehensively identified and reviewed for the purpose of the study.FindingsFour major themes of research on Chinese CRH have been identified: conceptual evaluation, list of the routes and characteristics of the routes, conservation and utilization. The results revealed that China has very rich resources in CRH, many of which were formed a long time ago, which exist across vast geographic regions and have assumed multiple functions and undergone dynamic reciprocal exchanges among diverse cultures and ethnicities.Practical implicationsThe paper summarizes some major obstacles faced by CRH in China and proposes a strategic model to address the need for a more sustainable development of CRH in the Chinese context.Originality/valueThe paper offers a comprehensive overview of CRH in China and discusses practical issues in management and development of heritage great in size, number and complexity.