<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Roman Imperial Roads (highways) built, maintained and organized by the Roman army and provincial authorities were studied in the Golan Heights since Schumacher’s surveys in the 1880s. However, most of these were obliterated by building and agricultural activity since the beginning of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. Local ancient road system, linking individual communities and their agricultural land was never studied, since it barely leaves a trace in archaeological record. This paper presents reconstruction of inter-provincial highways passing through the southern Golan Heights, and local road system in GIS using cumulative focal mobility network (CFMN) analysis. The CFMN provides outline of natural corridors of movement in the region. From CFMN it is possible to extract path with higher mobility potential which will be tested against present evidence for Roman Imperial Highways, since it is assumed that corridors with high mobility potential would be suitable place for construction of (inter-)provincial road. Path with lower mobility potential might indicate local road system, so it would be possible to connect agricultural communities with the land they exploited; which in turn may have implications for site prediction and site-catchment analysis exploring quotidian movement of people and goods in the landscape. Two case studies in this respect are presented: the city of Hippos and settlement of es-Safuriyye.</p></abstract>

Roman Imperial Roads (highways) built, maintained and organized by the Roman army and provincial authorities were studied in the Golan Heights since Schumacher’s surveys in the 1880s. However, most of these were obliterated by building and agricultural activity since the beginning of the 20th century. Local ancient road system, linking individual communities and their agricultural land was never studied, since it barely leaves a trace in archaeological record. This paper presents reconstruction of inter-provincial highways passing through the southern Golan Heights, and local road system in GIS using cumulative focal mobility network (CFMN) analysis. The CFMN provides outline of natural corridors of movement in the region. From CFMN it is possible to extract path with higher mobility potential which will be tested against present evidence for Roman Imperial Highways, since it is assumed that corridors with high mobility potential would be suitable place for construction of (inter-)provincial road. Path with lower mobility potential might indicate local road system, so it would be possible to connect agricultural communities with the land they exploited; which in turn may have implications for site prediction and site-catchment analysis exploring quotidian movement of people and goods in the landscape. Two case studies in this respect are presented: the city of Hippos and settlement of es-Safuriyye.

The Roman Road System in the Golan: Highways, Paths and Tracks in Quotidian Life

Journal of Landscape Ecology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"The Roman Road System in the Golan: Highways, Paths and Tracks in Quotidian Life"}

Roman Imperial Roads (highways) built, maintained and organized by the Roman army and provincial authorities were studied in the Golan Heights since...

The Roman Road System in the Golan: Highways, Paths and Tracks in Quotidian Life

Published Online: Feb 06, 2018

Page range: 11 - 24

Received: May 15, 2017

Accepted: Nov 06, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jlecol-2017-0022

Keywords
Golan Heights, city of Hippos, Archaeological GIS, Roman Roads, Focal mobility network

© 2017 Adam Pažout, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Roman Road System in the Golan: Highways, Paths and Tracks in Quotidian Life

Published Online: Feb 06, 2018

Page range: 11 - 24

Received: May 15, 2017

Accepted: Nov 06, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jlecol-2017-0022

KeywordsGolan Heights, city of Hippos, Archaeological GIS, Roman Roads, Focal mobility network

© 2017 Adam Pažout, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Golan Heights, city of Hippos, Archaeological GIS, Roman Roads, Focal mobility network