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Is this a Roman road?


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Hi - Needed your expert help to identify whether these pics below are of a Roman road. I took them on a recent holiday that went through Transnistria - a weird Soviet-loving breakaway state in Moldova near Romania. There's a stretch of nearly a mile still being used as a road, leading to the unfortunately named town of Bender. To my untrained eye looks like it might be with its kerb stones and camber. Any positive ID will be much appreciated!

 

DSC_2384.jpg

 

DSC_2386.jpg

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The paving stones of Roman roads change from place to place depending on what material that could be found reasonably close to the site (depending on how much resources that was acceptable to spend on the specific project). Basalt could from time to time be transported very far, as it was the preferred stone to use to pave roads.

 

This road (in your shots) is not paved with basalt, that much is clear. Maybe someone else can help you, but I believe that it would be difficult to identity the road for sure as Roman (if it even is Roman) unless an (small) excavation is done.

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I agree the picture provides insufficient information. While it does look like it might be Roman, given its remote location I'd say it is unlikely. Romans did have a presence here but I doubt the area was ever secure enough to allow the construction of costly infrastructure. I'm not an expert on the region though.

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Thanks for all your input. From what I've gathered during a trawl on the web, Dacia extended as far as the Dniester river that cuts through Transnistria (aka Transdniestria) so, as has been said, the Romans were active there. But if it wasn't the Romans, who else built roads like this?

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Well i'd say it could be anyone from the 16th century onward : russians, austro-hungarians (though I don't think they went there), local nobles, ...

The area saw quite a lot of troops movements during the fightings between Russians and Turks in what is now Romania and Bulgaria.

It could even be a german build road of WW2... or a russian road of the same era.

Without knowing the exact location of the road we're hard put to give you anymore information on the road ;)

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I've been pretty exact as to the location of the road. Bender is just west of the Dniester river and the capital Tiraspol.

I thought Roman not just because of its construction but also because of its rural location. Outside of towns, I didn't think many roads were built to this level of complexity pre 19th century.

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In that area Romans never held positions far from the Black Sea and the greek colonies around it. The closest roman held area would be the port of Tyras at the mouth of Tyras/Nistru/Dniester river but on the other side of the river. That roman held land probably was stretching from modern Galati in Romania to Tyras protecting the Danube Delta from the North and was under the governor of Moesia Inferior as were the Danube fleet and some of the Black Sea Fleet and also the roman garrisons further east in Ukraine at Olbia and Chersonesos Taurica.

The road itself looks like a Macadam road ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macadam ) in a very bad shape, a type of road that was very common in Romania and can still be seen in some streets in Bucharest.PA234169_resize.jpg

Edited by Kosmo
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On a motorbike. Actually, by taking this ancient back road we unwittingly entered Transnistria illegally! Needless to say, the border guards were NOT happy on our more conventional exit. Or to be more exact, very happy to fleece us of 200 Euro for our transgression.

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On a motorbike. Actually, by taking this ancient back road we unwittingly entered Transnistria illegally! Needless to say, the border guards were NOT happy on our more conventional exit. Or to be more exact, very happy to fleece us of 200 Euro for our transgression.

 

Well that would probably have happened regardless, you just gave them a convenient excuse to up the price. :)

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