Prehistoric Routes

Roman roads are the backbone of British history. This book examines the questions that never seem to be asked about Roman roads. Whilst new routes are traced and theories propounded about how they were surveyed, the important issues like Why? and When? have been neglected. How does an animal track turn into a major military highway? Were there any roads in the prehistoric period? How the Romans built their roads is assessed using comparative information (such as the detailed 18th-century records of Highland military road construction). The way the system functioned is examined and most particularly the often-ignored point of how it developed and changed in the Roman period. Change is a theme pursued for the early medieval period, as the importance of some parts of the system ensured their continuation whilst others were abandoned. What processes preserved a road, and what made it decay? Finally the book looks at the legacy of Roman roads now and the way in which they have been viewed and studied in recent times is considered.
An accompanying website provides links to related material (online sources of information and map resources) together with access to a Google Earth map derived from Margary’s description of the roads of Britain.

The primary aim of this paper is to present a solution to the issue of the statistical validation of route models. In addition, it introduces a body of theory taken from the broader field of route studies, isolates individual physical variables commonly used to predict route locations and quantifies them against the preserved hollow ways in the North Jazira Survey area, ending with a discussion of the complexity of human travel and the paramount importance of cultural variables.