![Credit: Walaiporn Paysawat-Mizu/Shutterstock.com When did humans start using roads?](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/When-did-humans-start-using-roads.jpg)
Credit: Walaiporn Paysawat-Mizu/Shutterstock.com
We can thank the Giza pyramids for the roads. A vital part of our built environment, they have been an essential part of human existence for millennia. The way they are built and used says a lot about our own modern societies and economies, but they can also offer a vital window into the past.
But when did humans actually start using roads? “The generic, honest answer is that it’s really hard to know,” Kalayci says. “First of all, we have to be very clear in our minds about what we mean by ‘road’ – are we talking about a developed road or just a dirt road that has naturally formed by people and /or animals constantly walking along the same line?”
In the case of the latter, it can be argued, rather philosophically, that as soon as humans learned to walk and began to travel the world from their African homelands, roads began to form – in short, a road can be designed as a single line. that humans wander continually.
But Kalayci informs us that it was probably the ancient Egyptians who deliberately went out of their way to build the first paved roads, when they were busy building pyramids and other monuments, between 2600 and 2200 BCE, during the Old Kingdom period. “They basically wanted a nice, easy, straight route from the monument site to the quarry that would transport materials quickly and efficiently,” he explains.
The caveat here is that archaeologists can’t be sure if anyone else beat the ancient Egyptians. “The truth is there may be evidence of earlier paved roads…we just haven’t found it yet,” admits Kalayci.
The ancient roads of Mesopotamia
Kalayci, a former Marie Curie fellow who worked on the GeoMOP project, focuses his research on Upper Mesopotamia, which includes the modern region of southern Turkey, northern Iraq and Syria, and is dominated by the mighty Euphrates and Tigris rivers. This mostly flat region was the playground of some of the best-known ancient civilizations, such as the Akkadians and Assyrians.
“Archaeological records show that this area became increasingly urbanized during the ancient period, and due to changes in the economy and society, transportation became a much more important consideration,” Kalayci explains. “Intensive agriculture began to develop, and as a result they had to discipline their movement from towns to villages, from pastures to market. As a result, people and animals traveled the same roads and caused little depressions deep in the ground…known as the ‘hollowways’ – which remain to this day.”
That was Kalayci’s goal during the GeoMOP project, where he used satellite images to map and map the region’s network of ancient roads.
On top of that, his job was to figure out not just where the roads were, but how they were used. “I had to figure out what the traffic levels were along each route, and knowing that we can get a better sense of the region’s complex political economy.”
In general, roads have always had a certain appeal for Kalayci. “It’s a matter of personal curiosity, the roads encompass the complexity of humanity very well. Traveling on one, you can read, eat, get excited, meet strangers. The roads give interesting clues to the past which are often overlooked in archaeology. So my work aims to make a seemingly invisible human phenomenon just a little more visible.”
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Quote: When did humans start using roads? (2022, October 24) retrieved October 24, 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-10-humans-roads.html
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