Scientists compile ‘Google Maps for Roman roads’
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Scientists compile ‘Google Maps for Roman roads’
All roads lead to Rome, the saying goes – but where exactly were these thoroughfares? Scientists have compiled the first complete atlas of the Roman Empire’s road network, mapping 300,000 kilometres of routes.
Their new tool, Itiner-e, functions like a “Google Maps” for antiquity and brings together all known archaeological information to date.
The Itiner-e websiteExternal link “brings together 200 years of research. Everything we know about the places where roads have been studied or excavated has been combined with satellite imagery and topographical maps showing traces in the landscape where roads may once have run,” Tom Brughmans, associate professor of archaeology at Aarhus University in Denmark and co-director of the project, told Swiss public television RTS.
“Our work shows that the Roman road network was far longer than previously thought,” he added. The team identified roughly 100,000 kilometres of additional road segments compared with earlier estimates.
Some mapped routes had never been documented before; others are now shown with greater precision – for example, paths that zigzag up to a mountain pass, whereas older maps depicted them as straight lines.
A tool designed for everyone
Anyone can use the tool to explore where Roman roads once ran. Several crossed what is now French-speaking Switzerland – notably in Lausanne, near the Roman Museum and the ruins at Vidy. According to the platform, Lausanne’s road network was built under Emperor Claudius in AD 47.
“The Decumanus maximus – the main road crossing the town of Lousonna [a Roman archaeological site in Switzerland that preceded the present-day city of Lausanne] from east to west – leads to several key buildings, including the great temple,” explains Karine Meylan, director of the Roman Museum of Lausanne-Vidy.
“This network was fundamental to the Roman Empire. It enabled political and military control and fostered cultural exchange,” Meylan says. “Here in Lousonna, we have evidence of the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis – something made possible by the mobility the road network created.”
The tool also helps researchers study the rise of the Roman economy, the spread of epidemics through mass migration, and the movements of Germanic peoples along these same routes – migrations that contributed to the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
More routes still to be found
The project is still developing. “A large number of Roman settlements are not yet connected to our network by known roads. Many of these missing routes may still be discovered, including in Switzerland,” says Brughmans.
“In Lousonna, archaeologists have just uncovered two new road sections. They have not yet been entered into the system, but they may soon be added to this collaborative, evolving digital map,” Meylan notes.
The atlas offers a window onto the past – one that promises to deepen our understanding of the history of the European continent.
Adapted from French by amva/sb
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