Poidebard was a
biplane pilot during World War I. Poidebard went to
Beirut in 1924. He was a pilot in the 39th Aviation Regiment of the French Levant in
Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon during which time he conducted an aerial survey of desert regions. In the 1934 book, Poidebard documented hundreds of previously undiscovered Roman forts and structures on the empire's Eastern periphery. He argued that these structures represented a line of defence against incursions from the east. However, recent mapping work, which has revealed hundreds of additional forts, overall aligned east-west rather than north-south, has undermined his interpretation, indicating instead that the forts and structures "supported a system of caravan-based interregional trade, communication and military transport." While Poidebard dates items to the Roman era, many are actually from the
Umayyad dynasty era, such as the
Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi. The Lebanon-Syrian Mandate was motivated to highlight Roman legacy over Arab history, Westernizing its history and linking the
civilizing of the Romans to that of the Mandate. ==Surveyed items==