Roman Road Myths - You NEVER knew
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 มิ.ย. 2024
- We made a video a few months back on Roman Road Myths. We left a few questions unanswered and learnt much more over the last few months that we thought you'd like to see. Join us in this weeks video where we take a look on the ground at some examples of some common misunderstandings.
All images CC and credited below. Sources also below. I should note that a large part of the inspiration here was the Roman Road Research Association. Their membership is extremely good value and worthwhile. www.romanroads.org/
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/ paulandrebeccawhitewick OR
/ @pwhitewick
Usual notices:
1. We are not historians. We enjoy researching and learning stuff, and with that we enjoy sharing our journeys with you. That said, sources for information often listed below with credits.
2. Errors. Whilst we make every attempt to not include any errors, research, and piecing stories together from dozens of sources sometimes leads to one or two. I will note here if any are found:
A. I said Alpian towards the end of the video instead of Appian!
Credits:
Filter: Snowman Digital and Beachfront B-Roll
Maps: Google Maps
Maps: National Library of Scotland
Lidar: National Library of Scotland
Maps: OS Maps. Media License.
Stock Footage: Storyblocks
Music: Storyblocks
Lidar: @ Phil_M_Barrett (Twitter)
Ackerman Street Dig: L Headland Archaeology.
Blackstone Edge One: Lou Johnson
Blackstone Edge Two: John Illingworth
Fosse way and Dere Street Maps - Neddy Seagoon
Roman Cart: Römisch Germanisches Museum Cologne
Appian Way: Paul Vlaar
Appian Way: Kleuske
Appian Way: Almare
Appian Way: casal rotondo
Ulpian Statue: Gamandi
Sources:
www.romanroads.org/gazetteer/...
www.romanroads.org/
/ @romanroadsresearchass...
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:29 - The Comparison
02:52 - Dig Deep
05:38 - Lines and Quarries
08:03 - Ditches and Drainage
10:29 - How to Build a Roman Road
11:59 - Boulders? - บันเทิง
![Genshin Impact | กาชา Clorinde ไวฟุนั้น ควร C6 [เทสตัวละครต่อ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SOVaBvL7K20/mqdefault.jpg)
An engineering professor I had often said that they built plenty of junk “back in the day”, but the junk all fell down and failed ages ago, all we see today is the stuff they got right. So time has erased evidence of the junk, leaving only the best built behind.
Survivor bias.
A bit like the planes that survived being shot at during the wars where they missed the engine and body. The ones that were didn't survive at all.
@@GryphLane Initially the RAF rejected the proposals by operational researchers that they should armour the undamaged parts of aircraft that had returned with damage for exactly that reason. The military initially said, "we need to protect these parts - look at the damage!" Eventually, they did accept the argument about which parts should be protected.
The Tuscan Island Giglio
(Isola Del Giglio) has a wonderful Roman road all the way from Porto to Castillio. Not bad for what amounts to a beautiful but over-sized volcanic crag. It doesn’t have a hugely deep Aggar so has very few layers if any over the original flags and cobbles.
There are also many single arch bridges in the Alps. Some are so slender you’ll marvel at how the heck they ever got built.
I've said the same thing about music. We only remember the good stuff from the past, there was plenty of dross in the charts as well.
One of the Vindolanda tablets was a note from a man with a cart saying "he wasn't going to Catterick this week because the roads were bloody awful."
Today his descendants still can't get to Catterick because the roads are still bloody awful and the Tesla is still charging.
Comme Ies Francais dit "Plus la change...
I like the Ea Nasir tablet
@@philhawley1219to be fair they’ve sorted the road to the east of Catterick and it’s the Tank Road to the west but yeah he’ll be still waiting for his car to charge.
@@philhawley1219 Making charcoal would have been a lot easier if the Romans had Tesla’s though. Just pop some wood in the back and wait for it to catch fire.
@davidmarsden
Did the Romans have traffic cones ? I wonder what an ancient Roman contraflow looked like ? 😆😁😃
With so many dull-as-dishwater diva 'historians' on TV - Paul's are full of enthusiasm, energy and information.
...and hedge diving. Please... never forget hedge diving. 😊
As a Council highways engineer, thank you for this, even if you arent defend us 😅
From an engineering perspective this all makes absolutely sense, I i always found it odd how much work they were seemingly putting into the roads. Thank you for educating me, as usual!
They had slave labour as well.
Why odd? Isn't infrastructure important?
@@tgbluewolf too much work for any government to approve. Anything beyond the bare minimum for usefulness is a redundancy.
.....
Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today
Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven
There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today
Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell
Come to Jesus Christ today
Jesus Christ is only way to heaven
Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void
Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today
Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today
Romans 6.23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Mark 1.15
15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Hebrews 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Jesus
A perfect short video, self contained, informative, great flow from beginning to end, thank you.
Fascinating when you do your Roman Road stuff, so informative. Love to have the myths squashed and the true story come out.
The ditch is called the slang. Think about it.I gained my PhD. from Roman roads.
Yeah until somebody else comes along and proves this video as a myth.
The bit where you climbed over the fence is where Eric Ravillious painted one of his most famous paintings.
Great artist. Have a book of his paintings so will have a look.
That's the one.
Chalk paths? Just been having a look online
Nature takes over fast. Roots push stones and material apart. Grasses trap dust and soil builds up, basically burying the road under inches or feet of leaf mould and soil. Frost heave moves things about. Unless you maintain any structure, nature will dismantle it relatively quickly.
Ravilious - my most admired painter
I remember doing this in Geography at school. The teach, who was awesome told us that the shoulder was also used for grazing cattle as they were taken to market. He emphasised this by taking us out to part of the Fosse near Harbury (Warwickshire) and you could still see evidence of this either side of the modern road.
Now that's a teacher!!
We still use cattle and horses and sheep to graze the ditches to keep the grass down so we can see either side of the road but the ditches are for drainage.
I remember excavating a stretch of Roman road and finding a pretty typical repair which consisted of a dead dog, broken pottery and the road mender's lunch. Chicken. This was covered by gravel and obviously settled into a pothole again rather quickly. My advice to anyone trying to find a Roman road especially in built up areas. Go speak to the gravediggers. They know when they hit one.
How had the chicken been cooked?
@@ColinH1973 I think he means the bones were chucked into the hole to help fill it in.
@@ColinH1973 Pan fried with a lemon butter sauce.
Sweet and sour.
This is a spectacular debunking, Paul. One of my favorites of your videos so far.
"Rebecca! Rebecca! Pauls been diving into hedges again!" Brillian video again Paul.
Being an ex hgv trucker I have a keen interest in old Roman roads, good work, keep it up plz ❤
Just in time to sit back with my supper and enjoy. Thanks Paul and Rebecca :)
@PailWhitewick
You really need to remember something here Paul, and it’ll do you a lot of good to recall this in the future when titling your output: you are a TH-camr. Despite what TH-camrs themselves think (a massive part of the problem), 98.7% of all TH-cam uploaders are below the median intelligence level of their respective countries. From what I’ve seen, you are in no way part of the remaining 1.3% of the TH-cam Content Creator Community. As such, just because you have only just found something out, doesn't mean that others don’t know these facts. You’re below not above average intelligence laddie, try to focus on that fact. In such a position as yours, it would be ridiculous of you to assume what other, more intelligent people do or do not know. Intellectually speaking, you have far more in common with the foam that accumulates on the surface of ponds than you do with the average man in the street. I know you think yourself intelligent because you’ve called yourself ‘an expert’ and had started (but never finished) to read a single book a few years ago. Though this is foolhardiness in the extreme as you are an utter dunce. You have trouble speaking most of the time and I’m sure I’ve seen your wife tying your shoes for you on occasion because you couldn’t remember the sequence. I’ve definitely watched her tying SOMETHING with laces… Now, i can say this to you with full confidence as I’ve had the misfortune of watching a couple of your videos. The ones where you start assuming you know the courses of forgotten canals even though you’re in completely the wrong place while doing it. You’ve given me a hearty chuckle a few times with your imbecility. You’re like a five year old trapped in the body of a sort of a man. So, if you’d be so kind in the future as to not assume what other people do and don’t know - purely because you think yourself superior and that you have some species of superior knowledge that only you, a TH-camr could learn - which you categorically do not, (see above, I know it’ll take you a couple of weeks to read this far), it’d be most appreciated. Just think how self-aggrandising and insulting it is to other people (a lot of which have forgotten more about your favourite subjects than you will ever learn) to tell them what they don’t know because unlike you, they’re not a TH-camrs so they could know. It’s a bit pathetic and if you have to put others down without provocation, it shows a massive lack of self-esteem on your part. Your title did provoke a response from your immediate betters i.e. me. Just for clarity and outright transparency, i am an absolute, thoroughbred, 24 karat, 12 cylinder idiot in normal life, yet I am akin to a certain Mr Tesla in comparison with yourself. When you get simple things woefully wrong, i genuinely feel a surge of pity for you and more so for your wife/carer. If you don’t like being put in your place and want no more of it in the future, I would strongly recommend that you don’t claim such ridiculous things in your titles. Please keep up the terrible work, one shouldn’t make fun of the less fortune of course. That is until said member of the cerebrally-challenged starts thinking himself smarter than normal people. Everyone heeds a reminder of their place within society occasionally, if they get above themselves. Don’t worry though, it’s not all woe and misery for you, you might even be able to get a job refilling the fridges with milk at a local supermarket. Good luck with that and remembering your very low place on the intelligence scale. Good day.
Still very impressed by the level of research you guys put into your videos; cheers (again) for making and sharing them with us :)
Thank you very much!
Another very interesting video. Most enjoyable. Thank you for all your research. We all appreciate it.
Another fine and explicit video today. Ancient history but easy to understand through your explanation. Hello to Rebecca for and see you on the next, Paul. Always look forward to them, see you on the next. Cheers Rebecca and Paul! 🇬🇧👍🙂🇺🇸
The one thing that grates me the most is the thing about the "engineers". The Romans had brilliant engineers. The Roman roads that these memes portray did exist at the time, and they were masterpieces of engineering.
All the points you are making are valid, but why people think the Romans didn't have engineers is simply beyond me, because they very clearly did.
I'm not sure who you are talking about. Have you ever heard the expression 'what did the Romans ever do for us"? Who do you think built the roads, buildings, sanitation, water supply...?
@@roginkUnder direction of the Roman engineers. It was a "both/and" situation, not "either/or".
Great content, great presentation. Always interesting. I hope you will continue with this as long as you enjoy it.
Paul, appreciated. I live in a Town in Western Scotland where the Antonine Wall passed through or beside 3 Iron Age Hillforts.
Growing up - was always taken to a Loch (Lake) nearby in the decent weather. Following study - it's not a natural Loch (Lake) at all it's actually a Roman Quarry used to build both the Roadways & the Antonine Wall nearby. Romans were masters at this - Identification of a suited Stone in the Landscape - Processed long term removal of such stone using forced Labor in the large part. Am of the mindset it worked fairly well. Cannot account for 'revolution' & 'revolt' that happened.
Great watch Paul, best wishes to yourself & the 'Good Lady'.
Fascinating. Really informative. Many thanks for the upload :)
I enjoy seeing the wilds of your island.
Really enjoyed that thanks Paul. Please take care
An excellent video Paul. There must be so many still hidden sections of Roman road at this moment in time. We have a section of Roman road here in the centre of my town in Thoroughsale Woods in Corby Northamptonshire. This is a section of the Leicester to Hunstanton Roman road. I also visited an area section nearby that was dug before a housing estate was built. It was a 50 metre section laid bare and a trench was dug across the agger. There were indeed layers of local material . There were ditches each side and the road was nearly about one side of a dual carriageway. So quite an important road. Your video was very interesting many thanks
Your detective work is very impressive, Paul.
Great vid as always, Paul, that gets the old grey cells sparking up 😊
My hunch is that we have only found a fraction of the Roman engineering in the UK. My thinking is that the main Roman roads we know today, like the Fosse Way, Stane, Stone and Ermine Streets are the motorways of the network. The big, civilian-built, backbone of the system developed some time after the conquest. Then there would have been, like today, a network of more local 'main' roads, then lanes and tracks leading to and between villa eststes and native settlements.
Less massively constructed and with shorter alignments, as seen increasingly into the SW from Dorchester for example, they have probably not survived the ravages of time and agriculture to the same degree as the 'motorways'. The same is likely true too, of much of the initial military network of the campaign period following the landing.
Vespasian's troops of the 2nd Legion would have most likely pushed a supply road westward close to the coast and connecting to each resupply anchorage. Much of that military construction may well have been of a mimimalist nature focussed on expediting a rapidly advancing campaign, but subsequently of little utility once the territory had been pacified and thus allowed to deteriorate.
If the hill 'forts' were essentially abandoned by the C1st BC where were the 30, or so, Opida, that the Second Legion 'conquered? The lack of evidence of extensive fighting at 'forts' like Maiden Castle, Dungeon Hill and Hambledon Hill suggest they were the sites of 'last stands', by the remnants of the tribal warriors.
Perhaps it's the tantalizing and enigmatic nature of much of the Roman period in Britain that makes it so fascinating? 😊
Well done kind sir! Most interesting. It constantly amazes me that people live on a street called "Roman Road" and don't have a clue that it might have a reason for being called that.
thank you - very interesting and infirmative as always!
Brilliant vid Paul, loved it, very interesting.
One of my favourite local walking and cycling areas. I just love looking at the ancient history on a map and then seeing it in reality on the ground ❤
Very interesting 👍🏻
Thanks Paul (& Rebecca). The myth eas what I remember from school history (early 80s). I also remember the odd Time Team with a very excited expert saying a new found Roman road as the ditches were parallel and 'this' wide so must be Roman.😮
Great vid as always Paul. Consistently one of the best channels on youtube. I always wondered where the Roman road was from/to Dolaucothi - the Roman gold mines in Wales. Fascinating place/history and arguably the reason they even went to Wales. No idea where the road is though. Well worth a visit if you ever float this direction!
This would definitely make for a decent video???
@@pwhitewick Oh heck yes, plenty to film around there mate, but i'ts National Trust i think so you'd have to check about filming during the tour/on the actual grounds i guess. (you can see/film plenty around the site too tho). Decent amount of Roman presence in the area to investigate to make a vid.
If you'd like to, happy to meet for a brew if you're near-by fyi ;)
Fantastic rundown of roman roads, thanks.
Large rocks would suggest to me that the Roman road builders may have been dealing with building the road across soft or unstable ground.
As an ex roadbuilding labourer, the other possibility is it's over a swamp or across a waterway. Large rocks let the water flow underneath your surface.
@@tsubadaikhan6332 Yep it's for drainage and more or less the same technique is used in roads and railway embankments today. Though as you said in modern roads it isn't to drain rainwater but rather groundwater, and also to allow for some expansion if the water freezes.
Learnt something valuable with regards to Quarries along the route -Thank you a great video
I’m reminded of a program I was watching a while back where they were talking about the vindolanda tablets and which was basically one of the ancient denizens of the fort complaining about the state of the roads…….......”and write to me what is with that wagon. I would already have been to collect
them except that I did not care to injure the animals while the roads are so bad.”
Eventually some lord would send a message down to the locals to "mend thy ways".
Thank you Paul. the video is very interesting.
Hi Paul, that looked cold!!
I wonder if the wide sections were laybys and places where horses were changed or rested, food was sold etc etc.
Just imagine the work involved, the materials required and logistics to build a long road to the standards indicated. Some may well have been but not many I think.
It is such a fascinating subject.
Well done, Rebecca's Nest productions!!. Have a great week!!
Well, you know these Property Developers. They most likely have it earmarked for Toll-Booths, Taverns, and Luxury Huts..😀😀
Perhaps the wide sections were lanes for overtaking or the hard shoulder for breakdowns?
A column of marching men would be as annoying as a modern horse box or a farm vehicle if there were no overtaking lanes for mounted travellers or horse-drawn vehicles.
@@MrBulky992 There would also have been plenty of farm vehicle in the form of oxdriven carriages.
This guy is definitely trying to get everyone drunk because every time he says "Roman road" you have to take a drink.
OMG. I love this so much! History lives today!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I’d love to see an episode discussing lidar maps, like you showed at 6:49. Those looked so interesting!
They are fascinating indeed, just need to try and work out how I can build that into a story
Excellent video really enjoyed watching it.
Thanks Paul, Enjoyed that one.
Thanks Paul, nice one as always :D
Thanks again!
A pleasant watch thank you
Really interesting video. I remember visiting an aunt who lived in Painswick when I was young. We used to go walking in the woods frequently and I do remember her telling me once that the Romans once built a road through nearby and showed me something that looked more like a long mound than a road. I wonder if this might have been the Ermin Road that connected Cirencester with Cheltenham. I know there is a Roman villa somewhere near Painswick, and perhaps it was something related to that? Anyway just my experience with Roman roads at an early age.
Very interesting, well aimed and well timed examination of some of the speculative myth-making that so often drowns out critical scrutiny and research. Did the ditches either side of the agger also function as a rudimentary barrier/boundary - similar to the fence posts beside a railway track?
Having been interested in this subject I read a variety of publications and visited some sites. One suggestion is that the roads were often mere tracks to start with and the first area of organisation was by laying out junctions. Often these junctions were horse stations for use of messengers and contained basic accommodation. At a later date these were joined up by gravelled tracks which were repaired over the time Rome was interested in them.
When it comes to boulders at the base of tracks this is the best way to lose them when encountered especially if crossing soft ground. Lighter gravels and stones are added to give footing over the top.
Some engineers have produce£ calculations to show the the roads contained 20,000 tons per mile of aggregate. I do not refute that but would say when compared to the width of the road measured and measured out in yards to sum becomes quite tenable when adding the fact that anything from 400 to 2000 years of maintenance can be added to some of them.
What is amazing is the ability of the current medieval road system which away from A series roads was scraped and rolled by steam rollers in the early 20th century and capped with coats of tar and stones and granite chipping every few years to have modern traffic run upon them.
I find your programme well researched and totally believable!
Thanks again you two another nice wee video
Very interesting video, really enjoyed watching it.
Thanks Simon
Hugely depends on WHERE and WHEN the roman road was built. Also the type of the road. Obviously more effort would be put on a road connecting major trade cities, compared to a road between small villages.
Here there is an amazing roman road that goes through the mountain. Flat approx 30cm+ stones are put vertically into the ground (rather than tiled like pavement slabs), making them securely lodged and extremely stable with lots of surface area that prevents them from moving at all.
Very interesting! Thank you!
I thought the raised road surrounded by ditches is also a defensive feature (like a moat) to slow down bandits as it is harder to attack something when you're going up hill.
I guess the ditch would be too small to act as any significant defence.
These ditches are so small you can jump over them so they'd be useless as defense.
Roman road going south from the river in Carmarthen, West Wales - called Roman Road. Goes up a 1 in 4 incline initially, then after a mile is lost in farmer's fields, then apparently becomes the old A48, before dual carriageway times. All fairly straight. Always fascinated me. I've anoraked it several times. Needs digging to discover it, there when crossing those farmer's fields, especially.
It's pretty simple, the Romans just aimed for a feature in the landscape and went straight for it, up hill and down Dale, until they reached it then they aimed for something else.
I'm waiting for memes about how Roman internet was MUCH better than ours..lol. I appreciate what actually was, not the Romantic 'ideal'. Thank you
hello again Paul , this was really interesting , we need a chat with a roman road builder lol, really well done and thank you again 😊
Many thanks
oh, well done, sir. entertaining; informative. thank you.
Very interesting, I wish I had this sort of thing when I was at school on the 60s, I might have paid more attention.
Anything about Roman Britain is interesting thank you for this video
Fascinating. Thank you. 👍
Wonderfully enlightening, thank you Paul. I was brought up in Wiltshire to certainly believe in the "immortality" of the Roman road! Paul, Johannesburg
Uniquely informative video.
They were also droveways for cattle. And then you needed broad sides along the paved road, so it would be usable even when wet. Some driveways in later ages could be more than 100m wide
As far as I can tell, every video is good!
I think so too. Well... there are one or two. But the other 340 😊
I really would like to know what our local "roman road" looks below ground now. ^^
Very informative video, I enjoyed it very much... as usual. 🤣
Paul, very informative. I will have to look into this more, from my side of the "pond".
Please do!
Very interesting, Paul. We have to remember that there would have been 350 years of presumably advancing road technology in Roman times in the uk and so what might have been built frequently in 70AD would not have been built in 350AD
I once was told that the ditches not only marked the public land but also were there to prevent carts to go on and off the road because they were all toll roads. The tolls were collected by locals who were assigned (or maybe bought the rights) the be maintainers of the parts of the roads .
That is interesting
Great video Paul, the research you put in is thoroughly appreciated.
Many thanks!
I really like the example where they show a "roman" road made of big ass rocks like a cobblestone road on steroids and then show a gravel or maybe once an asphalt road and say "engineers did this"
Without asking themselves the question, when each road was new, which one would you prefer to travel 50+ mph on?
The "roman" road would spit you off in a jiffy if you ever tried to take a regular car anywhere beyond 30 mph on it. And anything over 5 mph would be seriously uncomfortable.
Yes, the potholed road would arguably be WORSE but it wasn't like that when initially built and it only got that way because of what you described, mass of vehicle and speed of vehicle.
I had read that the standard was to rebuild, refurbish Roman roads about every 20-25 years. Usually legions did the work, the story goes.
I always enjoy your video's. Brb.....😂
Glad you covered Blackstone edge medieval road, that picture dosent show the steepness of the road.
Yup, I think mainly Romans would consider 1 in 4 the max. Very few up to 1 in 6
Great. Thank you.
Again a great video. There are some areas, like the 90 deviation of path, doesn't provide enough context to fully understand the reasoning and whether or not the road was returned to the original pathway.
Agreed. Check out our prior videos on this for the full context
Excellent. When we excavated the roman road at Oakenholt with CPAT several years ago, we found wheel ruts!
Oooh epic. Do you have a paper available to read on that?
@@pwhitewick coflein.gov.uk/media/272/409/652273.pdf With me in purple on the front cover. See Fig 9 :) And my bum second from the left in Fig 19! Oct 2017 :)
Interesting stuff. Thanks
Our pleasure!
Fascinating! Is there a Roman road atlas, and if so, how accurate is it reckoned to be? What resolution of Lidar are you recommending Paul? Scottish Double mapping offers a few, but with only partial coverage of the country, especially rural areas!
HOABL
Thinking about the shoulders on the roads. The agger itself would be hard packed to support wheeled transport, this would make it quite uncomfortable for horses bith shod and unshod. Therefore a softer shoulder would be more useful for mounted travellers. Messengers who needed to move quickly would find the softer shoulder better for both horse and rider.... just a quick thought...
Makes sense. Although all Roman horses where unshod.
@@pwhitewick I wasn't sure about if they were or not so knowing this it makes more sense to have a more forgiving track for them to use.
Abandoned quarries are always close to old roads, it's bloody hard work to transport stone
Good video 👏👏
Interesting stuff about the shoulder. I would always prefer to ride my horse on a clay surface rather than metalled or gravel. Less risk of injury to her joints from repeated impact on a hard surface.
Great stuff
Given how heavy and how much damage a horses hooves can do to a gravel surface maybe it nade sense to keep the centre for foot traffic. Also there's the other issue of horse manure which would have potential for very messy feet. The troughs each side so far away could maybe be a place for human waste which would possibly be washed away or at least covered in water during rainy times and being so far from the middle would keep smells lessened.
Some of those pictures of how Roman Roads were built were in the course work of our secondary school in 1968. My education has been ruined (LOL). I wonder what is taught in schools today?
Still being taught today. Go find a modern road construction book.... still there!!
Plenty of false information taught in schools...
Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb.
Crop rotation - pretty much abandoned around the first world war, still taught when I went to school.
We only use 10% of our brain.
Our tongues taste in 5 zones (remember the map?)
Dinosaurs were cold bloodied
Etc
I’d never fully considered ditches before!
Me neither. Turns out they might not be... Ditches.
.....
Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today
Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven
There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today
Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell
Come to Jesus Christ today
Jesus Christ is only way to heaven
Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void
Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today
Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today
Romans 6.23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Mark 1.15
15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Hebrews 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Jesus
A great video - it must have taken hours and hours from start to finish
Always does. Much appreciated
Intriguing. Any thoughts regarding the Roman road and finds in Cornwall with the new A30 dual carriageway expansion works?
Ah yes... I think we did a video on those finds... from Exeter. Maybe 4 months ago. Ish
Obviously the shoulders were to allow the emergency services to get through the traffic jams.
Fair!
a couple of years ago I was in Roman and took a walk down the Appian Way and at one point the road was being repaired with the the top paving stones being relayed. Hopefully this was being done under careful archaeologhist supervision, but it does show that even the best roman roads that survive today still need repair.
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People say the Roman roads were well maintained, but there is a letter found at Vindallandia where a supplier was saying they would not bring any more supplies to the fort if the roads did not get repaired.
Having lived in radstock I can assure you the fosseway does indeed put us on the map, if it wasn’t for that, nobody would know we existed
Here in Oz, we engineer our remote roads out of layers of gravel, wetted ( sometimes wirh diesel, sorry Greta) and rolled it binds together well and sheds water, you just need to keep on top of any blowholes appearing on the surface
We copied the idea from the africans who do the same
It really isnt a new idea, probably just forgotten over and over again through the ages
The shoulders seem like a good thing to have when a road is used for to walk larger herds of animals to town. This allows to make space for other travellers on the main part of the road.
About those layers, using asphalt we call that "Overlay". I worked for a railroad and one day while tearing out a road crossing at grade, we had asphalt on the approaches and through the years of the track being worked on, the asphalt was over 18" thick! Does that qualify it to be a "Roman Road"? lol We had a subcontractor come out and precut the asphalt ahead of the job and he had to use the largest blade he owned to cut it.
I have a question, is it likely that much less used smaller roman roads may have actually not been straight? I have only recently realised there is probably one near where I live in Alsager but nothing seems to show the exact route just possily suggested routes. Some of the routes don't have anything on them now but the nearest to me is a main road. I can't help thinking that humans are rather lazy so probably just kept building on the same road. There are areas on the local maps that once had 'entrenchments' on them plus what I can only assume are much older coal mines.
Also, was there any regrading, like once a year after spring or something. I have in mind practices on farm to market roads a generation back in North America.
I suppose another beneficial effect of clearing to grass either side of the road, if not a reason for doing it, would be that the road would not become muddy from leaf fall and moisture not getting away.
Shoulder - if you're moving troops around or heavy goods presumably you'll need extensive areas to pass?
Isaac Romero Gallo has his series on Roman Roads and engineering translated into English and available in TH-cam.
In addition to historian, he is an actual road and bridges engineer who has worked building them for decades, so he knows the techniques...
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