crossing the
Dannevirke, in Germany (
Hämeen Härkätie) at
Lieto, in Finland Except for
Roman roads, European pathways were rarely in good shape and depended on the
geography of the region. In the early
Middle Ages, people often preferred to travel along elevated
drainage divides or
ridgeways rather than in the valleys. This was due to thick forests and other natural obstacles in valleys. The
Amber Road was an ancient
trade route for the transfer of
amber from coastal areas of the
North Sea and the
Baltic Sea to the
Mediterranean Sea. Prehistoric
trade routes between Northern and Southern Europe were defined by the amber trade. As an important commodity, sometimes dubbed "the gold of the north", amber was transported overland by way of the
Vistula and
Dnieper rivers to the Mediterranean area from at least the 16th century BC. The breast ornament of the Egyptian pharaoh
Tutankhamen (ca. 1333–1324 BC) contains large Baltic amber beads. The quantity of amber in the Royal Tomb of Qatna, Syria, is unparalleled for known second millennium BC sites in the Levant and the Ancient Near East. From the
Black Sea, trade could continue to Asia along the
Silk Road.
Hærvejen (Danish, meaning "the army road") ran from
Viborg, Denmark through
Flensburg (in the present northern German state of
Schleswig-Holstein) to
Hamburg. The road runs more or less along the
watershed of the
Jutland Peninsula, known as the
Jyske Højderyg (Jutland Ridge), similar to the
ridgeways in England. By using this route rivers were avoided, or fords used, close to the rivers sources. Over time by this route was improved with paved fords, embankments and bridges. Concentrations of mounds, defensive ditches, settlements and other historic landmarks can be found along the road and sections of it can be traced back to 4000 BC.
Roman roads Roman roads were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the
Roman Republic and the
Roman Empire. They ranged from small local roads to broad, long-distance highways built to connect cities, major towns and military bases. These major roads were often stone-paved and metaled, cambered for drainage, and flanked by footpaths,
bridleways and drainage ditches. They were laid along accurately surveyed courses, and some were cut through hills, or conducted over rivers and ravines on bridgework. Sections could be supported over marshy ground on rafted or piled foundations. At the peak of Rome's development, no fewer than 29 great military highways radiated from the capital, and the late Empire's 113 provinces were interconnected by 372 great roads. The whole comprised more than of roads, of which over were stone-paved. See also the
Palatine Ways of St. James.
Germany The
Wittemoor timber trackway is a log causeway or
corduroy road across a bog at Neuenhuntdorf, part of the
Berne in the district of
Wesermarsch in
Lower Saxony, Germany. Originating in the pre-Roman
Iron Age, it is one of several such causeways which have been found in the North German Plain, particularly in the Weser-Ems region. It has been dated by
dendrochronology to 135
BCE. It ran across the Wittemoor bog, connecting the more elevated
geest at
Hude with the River
Hunte. An Iron Age settlement near a spring in the Lintel section of Hude was at the southern end. A section of the trackway has been reconstructed. Built somewhat later, the
Wittmoor Bog Trackways are two historic trackways discovered in Wittmoor in northern
Hamburg. The trackways date to the 4th and 7th century AD, both linked the eastern and western shores of the formerly inaccessible, swampy bog. A part of the older trackway No. II dating to the period of the
Roman Empire is on display at the permanent exhibition of the
Archaeological Museum Hamburg in
Harburg, Hamburg.
Hellweg was the official and common name given to main travelling routes
medieval trade route through Germany. Their breadth was decreed as an unimpeded passageway a
lance's width, about three metres, which the landholders through which the Hellweg passed were required to maintain. The
Kulmer Steig is a byword for transport links from the Elbe valley over the eastern part of the Eastern Ore Mountains to Bohemian (). Archaeological finds suggest that this route existed in the
Bronze () and the
Iron Age (750 BC – early AD) and even in the
Neolithic (
Stone Age )
Great Britain England The
Post Track and
Sweet Track,
causeways or timber trackways, in the
Somerset levels, near
Glastonbury, are believed to be the oldest known purpose-built roads in the world and have been dated to the
3800s BC. The tracks were walkways consisting mainly of planks of
oak laid end-to-end, supported by crossed pegs of
ash, oak, and
lime, driven into the underlying peat. and were used to link the
fen islands across the
marshes. The
Lindholme Trackway is later, and dates to around 2900–2500 BC. It fits within a trend of narrowing width and increased sophistication during the third millennium BC. Some argue that this shift could relate to the growing complexity of
wheeled transport at the time. climbing St Martha's Hill, near
Guildford, England Tracks provided links between farmsteads and fields, other farmsteads, and neighbouring
long barrow tombs. They also joined the separate localities to the camp meeting places and cross-country flint roads. Others were more likely to have been processional ways, such as the one leading to the gigantic temple at
Avebury in Wiltshire. On British hills, the line of tracks often run
a little below the actual crest of a ridge, possibly to afford some shelter from the wind or to avoid travellers presenting themselves to marauders as a target on the skyline. Examples include the
Harrow Way and the
Pilgrims' Way, running along the
North Downs in southern England. The
Harrow Way (also spelled as "Harroway") is another name for the "Old Way", an ancient trackway in the south of England, dated by archaeological finds to 600–450 BC, but probably in existence since the
Stone Age. The "Old Way" ran from
Seaton in
Devon to
Dover,
Kent. Later the eastern part of the Harrow Way become known as the
Pilgrims Way, following the canonisation of
Thomas Beckett and the establishment of a shrine in
Canterbury, Kent. This
pilgrimage route ran from
Winchester in
Hampshire, via
Farnham in
Surrey, to Canterbury. The western section of the Harrow Way ends in Farnham, the eastern in Dover.
The Ridgeway similarly keeps to high ground and for at least 5,000 years travellers have used it. The Ridgeway provided a reliable trading route running along
chalk hills from the
Dorset coast to
the Wash in
Norfolk. The high dry ground made travel easy and provided a measure of protection by giving traders a commanding view, warning against potential attacks. The
Icknield Way follows the
chalk escarpment that includes the
Berkshire Downs and
Chiltern Hills, in southern and eastern England, from Norfolk to
Wiltshire. '' Other examples of historic roads in
England include the Mariners' Way in Devon, and the
Long Causeway – a
medieval packhorse route that ran from
Sheffield to
Hathersage. The Mariners' Way was created in the eighteenth century (or earlier) by sailors who, in travelling across Devon between the ports of
Bideford and
Dartmouth, linked existing lanes, tracks and footpaths to form a direct route.
Scotland In
Aberdeenshire,
Scotland, ancient tracks include the
Elsick Mounth, which was one of the few means of traversing the Grampian
Mounth area in
prehistoric and
medieval times, and the
Causey Mounth, an ancient
drovers' road over the coastal fringe of the Grampian Mountains.
Roman legions marched along the Elsick Mounth.
Roman Britain In
Roman Britain, there is evidence that trackways were sometimes built upon by the Romans to form the foundations for
their roads.
Mastiles Lane was a Roman marching road and later an important route for monks leading sheep from
Fountains Abbey to summer pasture on higher ground. Also known as the Old Monks' Road, this is now a
Dales walking track.
Ley lines The existence of
ley lines and their relationship with ancient trackways was first suggested in 1921 by the amateur
archaeologist Alfred Watkins, in his books
Early British Trackways and
The Old Straight Track. Watkins theorized that these alignments were created for ease of overland trekking on ancient trackways during
neolithic times and had persisted in the landscape over millennia.
Greece Improvements in
metallurgy meant that by 2000 BC stone-cutting tools were generally available in the
Middle East and
Greece allowing local streets to be paved. Notably, in about 2000 BC, the
Minoans built a paved road from
Knossos in north
Crete through the mountains to
Gortyn and
Lebena, a port on the south coast of the island, which had side drains, a thick pavement of
sandstone blocks bound with
clay-
gypsum mortar, covered by a layer of
basaltic
flagstones and had separate
shoulders. This road could be considered superior to any
Roman road. The
Via Pythia (or Pythian road) was the route to
Delphi. It was revered throughout the
Ancient Greek world as the site of the
Omphalos stone (the centre of the earth and universe).
The Sacred Way (, ), in ancient
Greece, was the road from
Athens to
Eleusis. It was so called because it was the route taken by a procession celebrating the
Eleusinian Mysteries. The procession to Eleusis began at the
Sacred Gate in the
Kerameikos (the Athenian cemetery) on the 19th
Boedromion. In the present day, the road from central Athens to
Aegaleo and
Chaidari (the old route to Eleusis) is called after the ancient road.
Ireland , Ireland The
Corlea Trackway is an ancient road built on a bog consisting of packed hazel, birch and alder planks placed lengthways across the track, and occasional cross timbers for support. Other bog trackways or "toghers" have also been discovered dating to around 4000 BC. The Corlea trackway dates from approx 148 BC and was excavated in 1994. It is the largest trackway of its kind to be uncovered in Europe. Ireland's prehistoric roads were minimally developed, but oak-plank pathways covered many bog areas, and five great 'ways' () converged at the
Hill of Tara. An ancient avenue or trackway in Ireland is located at
Rathcroghan Mound and the surrounding earthworks within a 370m circular enclosure. The
Esker Riada, a series of glacial
eskers formed at the end of the
last Ice Age, formed an elevated pathway from east to west, connecting
Galway to
Dublin.
Russia 's well-known "mood landscape", the
Vladimir Highway, or
Vladimirka, takes on a symbolic meaning. The
Siberian Route (, ), also known as the "Moscow Highway" and "Great Highway", was a historic route that connected
European Russia to
Siberia and
China. The construction of the road was decreed by the Tsar two months after the conclusion of the
Treaty of Nerchinsk, on 22 November 1689, but it did not start until 1730 and was not finished until the mid-19th century. Previously, Siberian transport had been mostly by river via
Siberian River Routes. First Russian settlers arrived in Siberia by the
Cherdyn river route which was superseded by the
Babinov overland route in the late 1590s. The town of
Verkhoturye in the Urals was the most eastern point of the Babinov Road. The much longer Siberian route started in
Moscow as the
Vladimir Highway (a medieval road) and passed through
Murom,
Kozmodemyansk,
Kazan,
Perm,
Kungur,
Yekaterinburg,
Tyumen,
Tobolsk,
Tara,
Kainsk,
Tomsk,
Yeniseysk and
Irkutsk. After crossing
Lake Baikal the road split near
Verkhneudinsk. One branch continued east to
Nerchinsk while the other went south to the border post of
Kyakhta where it linked to camel caravans that crossed
Mongolia to a
Great Wall gate at
Kalgan. In the early 19th century, the route was moved to the south. From
Tyumen the road proceeded through
Yalutorovsk,
Ishim,
Omsk,
Tomsk,
Achinsk and
Krasnoyarsk before rejoining the older route at Irkutsk. It remained a vital artery connecting Siberia with
Moscow and Europe until the last decades of the 19th century, when it was superseded by the
Trans-Siberian Railway (built 1891–1916), and the
Amur Cart Road (built 1898–1909). The contemporary equivalent is the
Trans-Siberian Highway. == Middle East ==