Story at the Daily Mail. The gist of the story is this: In 1934, French archaeologist Antoine Poidebard used aerial photography to locate 116 Roman forts on the Syrian Steppe. The forts were mostly located along a line, prompting Poidebard to theorize that the forts served a defensive purpose to prevent Arab and Persian incursions, and marked the easternmost boundary of the Roman Empire. Now researchers at the Department of Anthropology at Dartmouth College have gone over Cold War-era spy satellite reconnaissance imagery and identified an additional 396 forts. The distribution of the forts, however, do not just fall along a border as Poidebard found, but are much more dispersed suggesting that they were to support trade and communications: "offering water to camels and livestock, and providing a place for weary travellers to eat, drink and sleep," according to the team.
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The Romans were expert at the logistics of power projection.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately we don't know when the forts were built. Time data might shed more light on the function of the forts--positions may have changed over time as the fortunes of Rome waxed and waned.
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