Skip to comments.
'Roman' roads were actually built by the Celts, new book claims
Telegraph (UK) ^
| Sunday, October 13, 2013
| Hayley Dixon
Posted on 10/13/2013 4:02:10 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
click here to read article
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-43 next last
Part of the Fosse Way in Gloucestershire, which a new book claims was built by the Celts, not the Romans [Photo: ALAMY]
1
posted on
10/13/2013 4:02:10 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
The Ancient Paths: Discovering the Lost Map of Celtic Europe, review by Tim Martin
2
posted on
10/13/2013 4:04:36 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
To: Renfield; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...
Thanks Renfield. As much as I'd love to believe this, I don't -- the Roman road system was being built in Italy even before Rome's independence, by the Etruscans, from whom the Romans picked up a lot of their characteristic civil engineering, iow as far back as the 7th c BC.
By the late 3rd and early 2nd c BC, the Roman military road system stretched through the Balkans and into Greece and Anatolia.
It was carried on throughout the empire before the beginning of the conquest of Britain in the 1st c AD, including in large areas which never had a Celtic population.
Let's not forget that the Greeks built roads, including in areas they'd colonized in what is now the French Riviera, iow, Gaul.
Without any kind of scientific dating having been done on the road substrata, the entire book will have to be (for the time being at least) be written off as baseless speculation.
One bit of circumstantial evidence in favor would be the Celts' development of the seamless metal tyre for their chariot and wagon wheels, but obviously that would be advantageous over lousy unimproved two-tracks that apparently prevailed.
3
posted on
10/13/2013 4:14:38 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
To: SunkenCiv
4
posted on
10/13/2013 4:21:25 PM PDT
by
JoeProBono
(SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
To: SunkenCiv
stereotyped image of Celts as barbarousI don't know if that image is widespread. The La Tene culture is seen as pretty advanced.
5
posted on
10/13/2013 4:22:33 PM PDT
by
MUDDOG
To: SunkenCiv
They didn’t build anything. Obama did.
6
posted on
10/13/2013 4:32:20 PM PDT
by
bgill
(This reply was mined before it was posted.)
7
posted on
10/13/2013 4:42:06 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
To: SunkenCiv
The Celts: Just doing the work the Romans wouldn’t do.
8
posted on
10/13/2013 4:50:28 PM PDT
by
Michael.SF.
(0bama lied, Stevens died, now 0bama covers up the lies.)
To: SunkenCiv
Well, I'm open to new evidence, but it does sound just a bit revisionist.
9
posted on
10/13/2013 4:55:34 PM PDT
by
BfloGuy
(Workers and consumers are, of course, identical.)
To: SunkenCiv
This isn’t particularly new info, so I don’t understand the fuss. The romans often paved over existing roads. They’ve been uncovering the vestiges of the older wooden roads. Most of the towns the roman roads tied together through out Europe, already existed... and it would be ridiculous to think they didn’t have roads that led to and fro. In Germany they found the imprints of a pre roman wooden highway which was wider than anything the romans were building.
The Romans have the historical advantage... they built to last and kept meticulous records.
10
posted on
10/13/2013 5:07:55 PM PDT
by
Katya
(Homo Nosce Te Ipsum)
To: SunkenCiv
Not only could they run, they could
drive.
To: SunkenCiv
You take the high road and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll be in Scotland before ye.
12
posted on
10/13/2013 5:15:49 PM PDT
by
yarddog
(Romans 8: verses 38 and 39. "For I am persuaded".)
To: SunkenCiv
"There is a lot of admiring what the Romans did, but they didn't do it in a void, and it might be nice if there was a more nuanced view of the almighty Romans." Yeah, but the Celts just based their road system on the Ley Lines established by the Atlanteans, so really, this guy should just shut up.
13
posted on
10/13/2013 5:26:02 PM PDT
by
Flag_This
(Term limits.)
To: SunkenCiv
Great article. Thanks, SC.
14
posted on
10/13/2013 5:34:02 PM PDT
by
SharpRightTurn
(White, black, and red all over--America's affirmative action, metrosexual president.)
To: Katya
The celts built, what could best be called trails and in some cases improved trails, in today’s lingo.
The Romans built solid lasting road structures. Sometimes over those trail (roads) sometimes not.
Every culture and every period of mankind has created whatever “roads” the peeps felt needful or could afford. In most cases, though, the “roads” were not much more than trails cut through the foliage with dirt compacted by traffic.
15
posted on
10/13/2013 5:52:53 PM PDT
by
Grimmy
(equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
To: SunkenCiv
They're driving on the wrong side of the road.
16
posted on
10/13/2013 6:04:01 PM PDT
by
MuttTheHoople
(Nothing is more savage and brutal than justifiably angry Americans. DonÂ’t believe me? Ask the Germa)
To: Grimmy
Paths worn by goats and other animals were followed by cave men who later widened them and developed them as trails under the city-states and then cleared them wider for wagons and on and on. Eventually they were transformed into superhighways.
To: MUDDOG; SharpRightTurn
18
posted on
10/13/2013 6:23:38 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
To: JoeProBono; bgill; Michael.SF.; Fightin Whitey; yarddog; Flag_This; MuttTheHoople
19
posted on
10/13/2013 6:23:57 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
To: BfloGuy
I wasn’t surprised to find that other title shown above — there was a newsletter out of the UK called “Stonehenge Viewpoint” which was published on newsprint but was pro-lookin’, unrefereed journal that I used to get. There were some whoppers in there about the mystical ley lines that accounted for “the old straight track”, and reviews of books about the “alignments” of various monuments and mounds which were of wildly different dates — apparently the “alignments” were incomplete for a hundreds or thousands of years until some much later group (from a different culture or five) finally got around to completing it. This author appears to be of the same school.
20
posted on
10/13/2013 6:27:43 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-43 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson