Roman Road Research Articles

Эволюция технологии создания дорожных одежд из натурального камня от римских дорог до наших дней

Эволюция технологии создания дорожных одежд из натурального камня от римских дорог до наших дней

The Tale of a ‘Tailing Pile’: The role of a Palaeolithic flint extraction and reduction site in the Frankish defeat in the Battle of Hattin, 1187

ABSTRACT The Horns of Hattin and its surrounding fields in the Lower Galilee is most famous as the scene of the Battle of Hattin (4 July 1187), during which the forces of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of the Muslims led by Saladin. Based on a large-scale landscape archaeology study and with focused prehistoric research, we present a three-step explanation for the outcome of the battle: 1. Lower and Middle Palaeolithic flint extraction and reduction activity resulted in massive tailing piles on the southern slopes of the Horns of Hattin; 2. These prehistoric land features were the foundation for a coaxial, second century CE Roman field and road system; 3. This field and road system ultimately restricted Frankish manoeuvrability during the twelfth century, notably in the eastern and southern part of the Plain of Hattin, and thus had a significant impact on the outcome of the Battle of Hattin.

Paradigm Shift in the Research into Roman Roads? : Possibilities of site diagnostics in road research in Roman Pannonia

During the ca. 500 years of the Roman Empire, road construction and maintenance was viewed as a priority, but it also offered a perfect means of propaganda. Today, the traces of these activities are visible in many places; inscriptions on Roman milestones (miliarum) and on other constructions proudly present these extraordinary achievements, which were accomplished, in most cases, by military pioneer troops.

Bilješke o putnoj stanici i naselju Dilunto

The paper presents data on the location of the road stop in Dilunto, which was the part of the Narona (Vid near Metkovici) - Ad Zizo (Mosko/Uksic) Roman road, today's Stolac. The remains of ancient settlements, smaller buildings used for various economy-related purposes, stairs, fortifications with wide walls, the remains of city square, public buildings, and a cistern were found on the aforementioned road in Stolac (Zagrađe, Podgrađe, Njivice, Carine, Bacve-Kuciste, Cairi, Veliki Svrdo). A huge number of smaller, movable remains, especially, ceramic, iron, bronze, glass, and silver objects, as well as different moulds, money, jewellery, and tools, were found together with immovable objects. Ancient Dilunto is located in the period between 1st and 4th century according to the oral and epigraph sources as well as archaeological materials (the remains of buildings, money, ceramics, bricks).

The mansio in Pisidia‘s Döşeme Boğazı: a unique building in Roman Asia Minor

The Döşeme Boğazı (‘Pass with the Pavement’) is one of the ancient routes through the Taurus Mountains that connected the Anatolian interior with the southern coastal regions (fig. 1). From an early date it was an important component of the Roman road-system in Asia Minor (fig. 2). The pass lay near the S end of the Republican route from the Dardanelles to Side which was created by Manius Aquillius, first proconsul of Asia between 129 and 126 B.C. The S part of this road was incorporated into the via Sebaste, built in 6/5 B.C., which linked several of the Roman colonies founded by Augustus in south-central Anatolia to the Mediterranean coast. By good fortune, the ancient settlements and the Roman and post-Roman road in this defile have survived largely untouched by modern development. The course of the road between the Roman colony of Comama (Pisidia) and Perge (Pamphylia), as well as branch roads leading to other settlements, can be traced precisely. Well-preserved remains of two settlements, both occupied between the 2nd and 6th c., are identifiable at the upper and lower ends of the defile: in them are houses having from 2 to 10 rooms, the larger ones arranged around courtyards and some having cisterns and towers (Turmgehöfte), a bath-house and public cisterns, roadside shops, sarcophagi and small heroa in prominent positions by the road, and numerous churches. The lower site includes a large walled structure probably of the 6th c., that was almost certainly designed as an animal enclosure to control transhumant flocks. Most remarkable of all the surviving structures in the pass, however, are the remains of a mansio or way-station, which survives up to roof level and is the best-preserved building of this type in the entire empire.

Situri și descoperiri de epocă romană din împrejurimile Potaissei (IV). Date noi și clarificări privind topografia siturilor de pe teritoriul comunei Tureni / Roman Sites and Discoveries Around Potaissa. (IV). New Data and Clarifications Regarding the Topography of the sites from Tureni parish

In 106 A.D. the kingdom of Decebalus was conquered by the roman emperor Trajan and upon its ruins was created the Roman province of Dacia. In about one century and a half the newly created province was so deeply transformed, that when Dacia was abandoned by the Roman administration around 275 A.D., the material culture dominating this area was the Roman one. These transformations are well illustrated by two roman sites located several kilometres northwest of the junction between the Arieș and Mureș Rivers, namely the Roman town of Potaissa and the legionary fortress of Legio V Macedonica. In the area where these two sites are located, only a small indigenous settlement is presumed to have existed prior to the Roman conquest. Nonetheless, at the end of second century A.D., both the town of Potaissa, and the legionary fortress reached their peak, making this area of the heist importance for Roman Dacia. For this reason, these two sites were intensely investigated by the scholars over the last decades. In contrast with these sites, the large majority of the numerous rural settlements which developed around the abovementioned town and fortress were investigated to a much lower degree. In the current stage of research there are lacking essential data about these settlements, as for example: their exact locations, dimensions and archaeological inventories. To improve the current stage of research it is necessary to sum up the information from the literature, to conduct new field surveys in this area, and to create accurate maps with all the sites and discoveries. These are the goals of a project that started a couple of years ago and envisaged all Roman-Era sites around Potaissa. Starting with 2019 the results of this project have been published in a series of studies, the present study, dealing with the Roman age sites from Tureni parish, belonging to this series. The parish of Tureni is located between the Roman urban centres Potaissa and Napoca, along one of the most important roads of Dacia, the one connecting the Danube and the northern limes of the province. Over the decades were identified several Roman sites in this area, in addition to the already mentioned road, in the literature being indicated two possible watchtowers and several rural settlements and villas. These statements are supported by the volume of the discoveries, on the one hand, and by the location of these discoveries along one of the main arteries of the province, on the other hand, although, in the current stage of research, the topography of the Roman-Era finds from Tureni is rather poorly known, as most of the discovery spots are not located with precision in the field. In order to decide the degree to which the statements in the existing literature still stand, over the last years I have performed a series of field surveys aimed at identifying and mapping the spots with discoveries. This initiative has indicated that these spots form eight consistent clusters where the finds consisted of masonry traces, pottery, tools, and even coins and inscriptions, located as follows: three clusters on the territory of Ceanu Mic village, one cluster on the territory of Micești village, one cluster on the territory of Mărtinești village and two clusters on the territory of Tureni village. The Roman road mentioned in this area crosses the territory of both Ceanu Mic and Tureni villages.

Millennial Record of Earthquakes in the Carpathian-Pannonian Region: Historical and Archaeoseismology

This is a short essay on earthquakes in the Carpathian-Pannonian region and its surroundings. Earthquakes have been recorded using seismographs since 1902 in Hungary. The relatively small number of seismic events and the long return period of major earthquakes make it necessary to use historical data in order to assess seismic hazard. Historical earthquake catalogues aim for exhaustiveness both in time and space, but they are limited by the lack of documentary data. A simple arithmetical assessment is provided to estimate our lack of knowledge of past seismic events. All destructive earthquakes of the twentieth century (above magnitude 5) are included in the catalogue (100%). Of the seismic events which took place in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, only 23% are on record, while this figure drops to 4.6 percent for the eleventh–sixteenth centuries and 0.2 percent for the first millennium AD. On average, we have no information about 90% of the destructive earthquakes which occurred in the Carpathian-Pannonian region over the course of the past two millennia. According to both instrumental measurements and historical sources, there were relatively few earthquakes in the central era of the period of time in question. This era coincides roughly with the two centuries of Ottoman rule (the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries). Were there really few earthquakes over the course of these two centuries, or we do not have the relevant records? We contend that warfare resulted in the destruction of settlements and the annihilation of documents. Fragile historical documents can be supplemented by the study of robust edifices, an approach to the study of the past which is known as archaeoseismology. Evidence of damage and destruction can be identified, and earthquake parameters can be assessed. One can find evidence corroborating other sources indicating an earthquake (e.g. Savaria), and one can also identify traces of previously unknown seismic events (Visegrád). One can also assign intensity values to the existing historical records. Damage observed to a Roman road in Savaria, to the medieval donjon of Nagyvázsony offers support for our fundamental contention. In order to understand the seismic hazard that was faced in the Carpathian-Pannonian region, renewed study of historical sources and new archaeoseismological investigations are needed.

Isaiah 40.3 and the Synoptic Gospels’ Parody of the Roman Road System

This article proposes that the Synoptic Gospels’ pronouncements of Isa 40.3 (Matt 4.3; Mark 1.2–3; Luke 3.4–6) invite a comparison with the Roman road system and its extensive broadcast of Roman imperial ideology. Heralding the sovereignty of a coming king on newly constructed roads through difficult terrain, Matthew, Mark and Luke portray the coming of the kingdom of God in terms analogous to the laying of Roman roads followed by the enforcement of Roman rule throughout the Roman Empire. If Isa 40.3 heralded the arrival of the true God through the ministry of Jesus, as the Synoptic Gospels proclaim, then Rome's pretentions were by implication counterfeit. The engineering feats of raising ravines, levelling heights, smoothing terrain and making straight highways denoted Roman expansion, conquest and the standardisation of Roman imperial ideology. In contradistinction, the Synoptic Gospels’ citations of Isa 40.3 presage the triumph of God, while simultaneously parodying Roman imperial ideology.

DA CAPITAL DA LUSITÂNIA A BRACARA AUGUSTA PELA SERRA DA ESTRELA

Os resultados recentes da investigação sobre a rede viária romana no interior da Lusitânia sugerem nova análise sobre o itinerário Mérida-Braga, em especial na sua relação com a Serra da Estrela. A construção da ponte de Alcântara contribuiu para alterar um esquema viário em que o principal acesso à Serra se fazia a partir da via Emerita-Asturica, situando-se a ponte no cenário de promoção das civitates da região como factor determinante do desenvolvimento de uma densa rede viária centrada no eixo Mérida-Alcântara-Braga.

Geological and Geomorphological Controls on the Path of an Intermountain Roman Road: The Case of the Via Herculia, Southern Italy

This work introduces the results of a geoarchaeological study about a large segment of a Roman road (i.e., Via Herculia, III and the beginning of IV century A.D.), which crossed the Lucanian segment of the southern Apennines (Italy). Classical approach of the archaeological research based on the analysis of bibliographic, archival, literary, archaeological, and historical sources allowed us to infer the Roman road path, which is quite different from previous hypotheses. Geoarchaeological analysis is based on the detailed mapping of lithological and geomorphological features of the study area and has been primarily focused on a well-known segment of the Roman road from Filiano to the southern mountains of the Potenza city (Sasso di Castalda). Our results suggest that the choice of the road path has been driven by the outcrop of some deposits and the presence of specific geomorphological landforms, such as low-relief areas in mountain landscape. Then, the same approach was applied to a sector with controversial archaeological evidences (i.e., the Upper Agri river valley), where geological and geomorphological analyses support archaeological research in the reconstruction of the ancient path. This integrated approach can help archaeology to understand and then discover ancient road paths crossing complex and impervious landscapes such as the intramontane lands.

THE DANCING LARES AND THE SERPENT IN THE GARDEN: RELIGION AT THE ROMAN STREET CORNER. By Harriet I.Flower. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017. Pp. xiii + 394. Plates. Hardcover, $45.00.

Religious Studies ReviewVolume 45, Issue 3 p. 372-373 Short Reviews of Recent Publications: Greece, Rome, Greco-Roman Period THE DANCING LARES AND THE SERPENT IN THE GARDEN: RELIGION AT THE ROMAN STREET CORNER. By Harriet I. Flower. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017. Pp. xiii + 394. Plates. Hardcover, $45.00. First published: 19 September 2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.14177Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume45, Issue3Special Issue: Jessica Johnson's Biblical Porn September 2019Pages 372-373 RelatedInformation

Paradigm and pragmatism: GIS‐based spatial analyses of Roman infrastructure networks and land‐use concepts in the Upper Rhine Valley

AbstractThe Roman infrastructural network in the Upper Rhine Valley aligns with the locations of military fortifications and also connects agricultural areas and settlements to trade routes and regional markets. Conventionally, the connection of rural areas to these broader networks is imagined as a straight line, suggesting direct connectivity, maximum accessibility, and engineering pragmatism. However, it is important to appreciate that local environmental conditions had a strong impact on Roman road development and land‐use strategies. This article examines the geomorphological, geological, and hydrogeological conditions in the Upper Rhine Valley to define and analyze the relationships between Roman transport routes, settlement, and land‐use opportunities, and physical‐geographical factors. An accumulative cost surface is generated using vegetation data based on satellite imagery, and attributes are recorded in geomorphological and geological maps in a GIS. This modeling technique leads to potential movement and infrastructure corridors. Topographical aspects and terrain roughness play only a minor role in the study area, and it is argued that the interplay of aquifer thickness, groundwater level, quaternary sedimentology, and soil communities is decisive for assessing the suitability of terrain for corridors of movement.

Observations on the Roman Road between Exeter, North Tawton and Okehampton

Observations on the Roman Road between Exeter, North Tawton and Okehampton

A Hint of Exeter's Hinterland and Port: A New Large Aisled Hall Building at Wessex Close, Topsham, Devon

ABSTRACTA large aisled hall building excavated at Topsham, near Exeter, Devon, dates to the late second and third centuries a.d. and would have been used simultaneously for domestic accommodation, crop processing, fish sauce making, industrial activities and storage. Its large size is unique in the hinterland of Roman Exeter and this is almost certainly due to its prime position next to both the Exe estuary and the Roman road between Topsham and Exeter. The issues raised in regard to the relationship between Exeter and its hinterland are discussed.

The legacy of Roman and Greek urban planning in the cities of today

The cities of the Roman Empire were characterized in particular by their chequerboard plans. Studying the plans of the same cities today, the Roman streets are only rarely recognizable. By systematic comparison of archaeological plans with those of today, and using satellite imagery as a tool, it is possible to map the degree of persistence of the Roman or Greek plan. The level of survival of the ancient plans is variable: it is high for example in northern Italy and around Naples, but generally low elsewhere, as in England and Egypt. But the process of loss and survival can be counter-intuitive.

NDVI Identification and Survey of a Roman Road in the Northern Spanish Province of Álava

The Iter 34 (Antonine Itinerary XXXIV) is the name of the Roman road that crosses the province of Álava from west to east. Since no specific path was officially recognized before our study, the remains of the road did not benefit from heritage protection. In 2017, we made a project to determine the course of the road through rural Álava. In addition to traditional archaeological excavation and prospecting techniques, we used UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle) to produce NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) orthomosaic plans of ten cultivated areas through which the road is conjectured to pass. NDVI orthomosaics let us see crop marks better than with conventional photography, allowing us to detect the crop marks during times of the year and in places where conventional photography would fail to show them. Thanks to the NDVI orthomosaics, remains of the road were identified not only in places where we knew it existed, but also in previously unknown locations. Furthermore, other archaeological features were identified close to the roadway. This technique heralds a great advance in non-invasive methods of archaeological surveying. By using precision farming techniques we have identified the course of the Roman road Iter 34 in several locations in a short period of time and with few resources.

Mediterranean Basin Wetlands as a Vertebral Axis of the Territory

Within the framework of the new environmental history, this article focuses on the interaction between historical human societies and a given natural environment. Specifically, we study the spatial relationships between wetlands, Roman roads, and contemporary livestock trails, with the aim of verifying the role of wetlands as a support of territory planning since antiquity to the present. The documentation used includes geographical and ecological manuscripts together with ancient sources (texts, archaeology). Our results demonstrate an overlapping that remarks the importance of wetlands in the study area’s territorial ordering during various historical moments. This result also opens the possibility of applying this reality to others parts of the Mediterranean region with the same climatological conditions and a similar history. The clear heritage value of the wetlands are compelling enough to take the necessary protection measures for their conservation in the face of the growing threat of their deterioration and disappearance.

Identifying the Roman road from Corduba to Emerita in the Puente Nuevo reservoir (Espiel-Córdoba/Spain)

A stretch of the Roman road between Corduba and Emerita runs through the modern region of Alto Guadiato in the province of Córdoba (Spain). The structure of this Roman road is well known in the most mountainous part of this territory. However, there are four reservoirs along the course of this road in the flattest part of the region. Therefore, usually the Roman road is submerged and becomes hard to study it. In December 2017 we have been taken advantage of a drought period in order to document the road using remote sensing, photogrammetry and ground investigations. The first step of this research was the identification of this Roman road from several aerial imagery datasets of Spain available in the CNIG. Later, diverse DTM processed from the PNOA LiDAR point clouds were used to obtain the maximum of information in order to design our own photogrammetric acquisitions. Then, we have compared the performance of both photogrammetric DEMs. Finally, this dataset was checked with a ground survey along the Roman road.In this paper we present the earth observation, remote sensing and ground prospection methods that can be used to study a Roman road in an overall way. Moreover, these resources are very useful when agility is required to get high-quality documentation, as is the case of this submerged stretch of Roman road. Finally, these methods are also helpful to preserve the memory of threated archaeological sites.

Remote Sensing Analyses on Sentinel-2 Images: Looking for Roman Roads in Srem Region (Serbia)

The present research is part of the project “From Aquileia to Singidunum: reconstructing the paths of the Roman travelers—RecRoad”, developed at the Université Bordeaux Montaigne, thanks to a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship. One of the goals of the project was to detect and reconstruct the Roman viability between the Roman cities of Aquileia (Aquileia, Italy) and Singidunum (Belgrade, Serbia), using different sources and methods, one of which is satellite remote sensing. The research project analyzed and combined several data, including images produced by the Sentinel-2 mission, funded by the European Commission Earth Observation Programme Copernicus, in which satellites were launched between 2015 and 2017. These images are freely available for scientific and commercial purposes, and constitute a constantly updated gallery of the whole planet, with a revisit time of five days at the Equator. The technical specifications of the satellites’ sensors are particularly suitable for archaeological mapping purposes, and their capacities in this field still need to be fully explored. The project provided a useful testbed for the use of Sentinel-2 images in the archaeological field. The study compares traditional Vegetation Indices with experimental trials on Sentinel images applied to the Srem District in Serbia. The paper also compares the results obtained from the analysis of the Sentinel-2 images with WorldView-2 multispectral images. The obtained results were verified through an archaeological surface survey.

La via Regio-Capuam nell'area del Savuto-Reventino : contributo alla ricostruzione del tracciato ed alla localizzazione di ad fl. Sabatum (It. Ant.)

The Regio-Capuam road in the Savuto-Reventino region. Towards a reconstruction of its course and the location of ad fl. Sabatum (It. Ant.) The paper aims to contribute to the reconstruction of the Roman road system in the Savuto-Reventino region (west-central Calabria, Southern Italy). Thanks to the Itinerarium Antoninum, we know that a ford (ad fl. Sabatum) existed on the Savuto river at the end of the IIIrd century BC. The correspondence between the distances provided by the imperial itinerarium and those of the republican sources (Lapis Pollae and S. Onofrio’s miliarium) indicates that the ford is relating to the via Regio-Capuam, the praetorian road built in 131 BC. The main purpose of this study is the reconstruction of the Roman road section passing through the Savuto’s valley and the location of Savuto’s ford. With this aim, the research exploits different types of sources, as modern cartography (Maps of Martirano’s diocese – end of the XVI century – and the Bourbon land register – middle of the XVIII century), satellite images and data gathered with surface survey. The re-examination of the already known sources (Lapis Pollae, S. Onofrio’s miliarium and Itinerarium Antonini) has been conducted through a thorough practical verification of all data thanks to the QGis application. This allowed the author to highlight that the distances provided by the ancient sources do not match the geo-morphological assets and the road reconstructions that have until now been proposed. A number of considerations, concerning the topography, the place-names and, above all, the role of the local community in the road system management (shown by the Roman law) seem to suggest that the Regio-Capuam’s track was not continuous but divided on the basis of legal and administrative authorities.