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88-627: The Elsick Mounth is an ancient trackway crossing the Grampian Mountains in the vicinity of Netherley, Scotland . This trackway was one of the few means of traversing the Grampian Mounth area in prehistoric and medieval times. The highest pass of the route is attained within the Durris Forest . Notable historical structures in the vicinity are Maryculter House , Lairhillock Inn and Muchalls Castle . Most of

176-637: 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 Chlumec u Chabařovic ( German : Kulm ). Archaeological finds suggest that this route existed in the Bronze ( c.  1800–750 BC ) and

264-518: A 200 mm (8-inch) 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

352-478: A few times a year between summer and winter pastures and being recognized and expected by other neighboring communities. These groups seem to have interacted often, and they also traded and preyed upon settled communities. A common view is that the early communities of the Eurasian steppe were clustered but not necessarily closely related ethnically. On the one hand, each population may have had its own history. On

440-615: A number of roads are commonly identified as the main routes. Kaidō ( 街道 , road ) were roads in Japan dating from the Edo period (between 1603 and 1868). They act important roles in transportation like the Appian way of ancient Roman roads. Major examples include the Edo Five Routes , all of which started at Edo (modern-day Tokyo ). Minor examples include sub-routes such as

528-497: A prehistoric cavalry and metal weapons probably laid the framework of a much more militarized and possibly more hostile environment, triggering the migration of the most peaceful - or weakest - Homo sapiens populations to more remote parts of the Steppe route. Advanced craftsmanship such as metal-smelting and pottery production (painted vessels and terracotta sculpture) are found side by side with large areas covered with wastes from

616-755: 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

704-407: 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 . The Siberian Route ( Russian : Сибирский тракт , Sibirsky trakt ), 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

792-720: 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

880-801: A testimony of its presence, an Aurignacian Venus figurine was found near Irkutsk , on the Upper Angara River. Traces of the Magdalenian culture were also identified in Manchuria, Siberia and Hebei . Pastoralism introduced a major leap in social development and prepared the necessary base for the creation of ancient semi-nomadic states along the Eurasian Steppe Route. The analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in skeletal collagen of these same human remains has helped to classify their dietary background and to characterize

968-653: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Ancient Rome –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Trackway The Post Track , a prehistoric causeway in the valley of the River Brue in the Somerset Levels , England, is one of the oldest known constructed trackways and dates from around 3800 BCE. The world's oldest known paved road was constructed in Egypt some time between 2600 and 2200 BC. The Romans were

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1056-636: Is now India , Pakistan and Afghanistan . A route since antiquity, it was constructed into a coherent highway by the Maurya Empire in 300 BC. Soon after, the Greek diplomat Megasthenes (c. 350 – c. 290 BC) wrote of his travels along the road to reach Hindu kingdoms in the 3rd century BC After invading India over 1,500 years later, Mughals extended the Grand Trunk Road westwards from Lahore to Kabul (the capital of Afghanistan) crossing

1144-549: Is still unclear. The hunter-gatherers were slowly replaced around 9000 BCE by new immigrants from the Near East who had greater subsistence capacities due to their knowledge of primitive farming. The dominant position occupied by nomadic communities in the steppe ecological niche was a result of their nomadic military and technical superiority and is thought to have originated in the North Caucasian steppes as early as

1232-637: Is today south-west Poland . See also the Via Regia Lusatiae Superioris . An important medieval German pilgrim route was the Via Tolosana (because the most important town along the way is Toulouse , France). This is one of the four medieval pilgrim routes described by Aimery Picaud in his 12th-century Pilgrim's Guide , used by pilgrims from southern and eastern Europe on the Way of St James to Santiago de Compostela . See also

1320-582: The Aral and Caspian Sea basins and the Sarykamysh depression; the primitive Syr Darya , Zeravshan , Amu Darya , Uzboy , Murghab , Tedzhen , Atrek , and Gorgan river systems were formed. Cyclical climatic changes during the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs finally produced a warmer and less dry climate in the greater part of western Asia that led to the present-day configuration and ecology of

1408-656: The Hokuriku Kaidō and the Nagasaki Kaidō . Kaidō , however, do not include San'yōdō , San'indō , Nankaidō and Saikaidō , which were part of the even more ancient system of Yamato government called Gokishichidō . This was the name for ancient administrative units and the roads within these units, organized in Japan during the Asuka period (AD 538–710), as part of a legal and governmental system borrowed from

1496-641: The Iron Age (750 BC – early AD) and even in the Neolithic ( Stone Age c.  4500–1800 BC ) 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

1584-727: The Khyber Pass . The road was later improved and extended from Calcutta to Peshawar by the British rulers of colonial India . For many centuries, the road has acted as a major trade route and facilitated travel and postal communication. The Grand Trunk Road remains under use for transportation in India. The Khyber Pass was an all-season mountain pass connecting Afghanistan to western Pakistan . Brick-paved streets appeared in India as early as 3000 BC. Except for Roman roads , European pathways were rarely in good shape and depended on

1672-624: The Long Causeway , a Medieval packhorse route that ran from Sheffield to Hathersage and The Mariners' Way in Devon. The latter was created by sailors in the eighteenth century, or earlier, travelling between the ports of Bideford and Dartmouth, Devon , who linked existing lanes, tracks and footpaths to form a direct route. In Aberdeenshire , Scotland , ancient tracks include the Causey Mounth , an ancient drovers' road over

1760-752: The Palatine Ways of St. James . 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

1848-653: The Pazyryk culture located near the borders with Russia, Mongolia, and China at the junction of the Altai and Tarbagatai mountains along the Kara-Kaba River, showed that much work still needs to be performed to better understand the communities bordering this intercultural transportation route and to assess unexcavated sites in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. The work confirmed that

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1936-474: The Pontic-Caspian Steppe is assigned to this period. The transition from a food-gathering to a food-producing economy through farming and stock-keeping led to profound social and cultural changes. Hunting and river fishing likely continued to play a significant role in subsistence, especially in the forest steppe areas. The transition to animal husbandry played a critical role in the history of

2024-551: The Qinghai-Tibet plateau , there have been discoveries of tortoise-shell carvings of Jiahu symbols dating back to c. 6200-6600 BCE. For now, they seem to qualify as symbols rather than as evidence of systematic writing. Writing and accounting likely started independently in various areas of Eurasia , including the Mediterranean Basin and Mesopotamia , but they appear to have spread relatively rapidly along

2112-805: The Sayan mountains in the east, and the Greater Khingan range; these divided the steppe into four segments that could be crossed by horsemen. The altitude of some mountainous barriers, such as the Altai Mountains, with elevations up to 4,000 metres (13,000 ft), originally kept some regions self-contained. The vast territory stretching alongside the Steppe Route is diversified and includes dry steppe , desert , mountains , oases , lakes , rivers and river deltas , lowland steppe, mountain steppe, and forest steppe regions. Its wildlife

2200-519: The Sredny Stog communities of eastern Ukraine and from south Russia with the domestication of the Bactrian camel dating to c. 4000 BCE. This two*humped heavy load carrier is one of the most adaptive animals in the world, capable of withstanding temperatures from 40 °C to -30 °C. In eastern Eurasia, agriculture was likely started by Indo-European communities ( Tocharians ) established in

2288-746: The Steppe Route precedes the conventional date for the origins of the Silk Road by at least two millennia. See also the Northern Silk Road , the Southern Silk Road: Through Khotan , Tea Horse Road . The Shudao ( Chinese : 蜀道 ; pinyin : Shǔdào ), or the "Road(s) to Shu", is a system of mountain roads linking the Chinese province of Shaanxi with Sichuan (Shu), built and maintained since

2376-534: The Tarim Basin of northwestern China) around 4000 BCE. In western Eurasia, the revolutionary introduction of writing , dated to the same period, apparently originated to serve accounting needs but developed with the Sumerian concern to leave messages for the afterlife. In Inner China , which represented about half of the territory of the modern Chinese state (i.e., excluding Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang and

2464-606: The bogs of Red Moss and other low-lying mosses associated with the Burn of Muchalls . That march used the Elsick Mounth, one of the ancient trackways crossing the Grampian Mountains , lying west of Netherley . To the north the Romans proceeded to the next camp at Ythan Wells . This article related to Aberdeenshire , Scotland , is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Scotland -related article

2552-663: 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

2640-466: 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 were physical infrastructure vital to

2728-474: The 4th century BC. Technical highlights were the gallery roads , consisting of wooden planks erected on wooden or stone beams slotted into holes cut into the sides of cliffs. The roads join three adjacent basins separated and surrounded by high mountains. Like many ancient road systems, the Shu Roads formed a network of major and minor roads with different roads being used at different historical times. However,

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2816-437: The 8th millennium BCE. The post-glacial period was marked by a gradual rise of temperatures, which peaked in the 5th and 4th millennia BCE. These more hospitable conditions provided humans with grasslands and more stable food supplies and resulted in a sharp increase in their numbers. The regular collection of wild cereals led to the empirical breeding and selection of cereals (wheat, barley) that could be cultivated. It also led to

2904-547: The Chinese. Many highways and railway lines in modern Japan follow the ancient routes and carry the same names. The early roads radiated from the capital at Nara or Kyoto . Later, Edo was the reference, and even today Japan reckons directions and measures distances along its highways from Nihonbashi in Chūō, Tokyo . The Grand Trunk Road in the Indian subcontinent was the main road from modern day Bangladesh , through what

2992-475: The Great (Darius I) of the first ( Achaemenid ) Persian Empire in the 5th century BCE. Darius built the road to facilitate rapid communication throughout his very large empire from Susa , Syria to Sardis , Turkey . It is claimed that some of the earliest roads were created by humans who followed already existing paths made by animals, and, in particular, that trails created by the herds of buffalo shaped

3080-783: 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

3168-688: The Neolithic and the Bronze Age). The lands of the Inner Eurasian steppe were occupied, possibly since the fourth millennium BCE, by nomadic communities, namely those of the Proto-Indo-Iranian speaking Andronovo Culture , practicing extensive forms of horse pastoralism, moving from place to places. This ensured that the pastoralists' contacts and influence would extend over large areas. The earliest evidence for riding comes from

3256-412: The Steppe Route preceded the conventional date for the origins of the Silk Road by at least two millennia. The Steppe Route centered on the North Asian steppes and connected eastern Europe to northeastern China . The Eurasian Steppe has a wide and plane topography, and a unique ecosystem . The Steppe Route extended from the mouth of the  Danube River to the Pacific Ocean . It was bounded on

3344-399: The Steppe Route. The transition period to the Bronze Age shows varying patterns in the different geographical regions of the Steppe Route. However, numerous craft activities involved the manufacture of ornaments, instrumental goods and domestic commodities. As early as the 6th-5th millennium BCE ( Vinča culture , situated in what is now Serbia ), the Pontic-Caspian steppe can be traced as

3432-456: The Three Kingdoms noted that both confederacies of Byeonhan and Jinhan (later known as Silla and Gaya kingdoms in Korea), “had many mulberry trees and silkworms”, indicating that the silk produced on the Korean Peninsula was known in other countries from ancient times. In the late 3rd millennium BCE, military-oriented stockbreeding communities settled in eastern Central Asia (Sayan-Altai, Mongolia). The Nephrite (Jade) Road materialized;

3520-429: 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

3608-432: The US, from the 19th century. Such pioneer trails often made use of ancient routes created by indigenous people . The Silk Road was a major trade route between China and India, Europe, and Arabia. It derives its name from the lucrative trade in silk carried out along its length, beginning in the Han dynasty (207 BCE–220 CE). The Han dynasty expanded the Central Asian section of the trade routes around 114 BCE through

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3696-431: 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

3784-419: 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

3872-452: 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

3960-405: The arrival in different regions of Europe of hunter-gatherers who later developed a knowledge of farming. It was found that in central and southwest Europe, these could mainly be traced to the Neolithic. In the central and eastern Mediterranean, the arrival of the first human migrants can be dated to the much earlier Late Pleistocene period. The early acquaintance with a food-producing economy in

4048-413: The coastal fringe of the Grampian Mountains and Elsick Mounth , which was one of the few means of traversing the Grampian Mounth area in prehistoric and medieval times. Roman legions marched along the Elsick Mounth. In Roman Britain , many trackways were built upon by the Romans to form the foundations for their roads . Prior to this, people used trackways to travel between settlements but this

4136-416: The control of the best pastures or migrating to start what might become new states. By 2000 BCE the network of Steppe Routes exchanges started to transition to the Silk Road . By the middle of this millennium, the “steppe route” cultures were well-established. Slow-moving groups following a heavy chariot with four solid wheels led by hunters and fishermen were gradually replaced or enslaved by herdsmen from

4224-408: The domestication of animals (donkeys, asses, horses, sheep, goats) for stockbreeding. Although the quality and quantity of artifacts varies from site to site, the general impression is that the development of craftsmanship contributed to more stable settlements and a more precise definition of routes connecting certain communities with each other. The Aurignacian culture spread through Siberia, and as

4312-402: The earth and universe). The Sacred Way ( Ancient Greek : Ἱερὰ Ὁδός , Hierá Hodós ), 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,

4400-427: 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

4488-487: 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 , Hampshire , via Farnham , Surrey , to Canterbury Kent . 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

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4576-447: The economy of the steppe communities. Strontium isotope analysis has helped to identify faunal and human movements between various regions. Oxygen isotope analysis is applied to reconstruct early drinking habits and climatic change's impact on populations. The combination of these factors has aimed at reconstructing a more precise picture of the living conditions of the time. The analysis of 1,500 mitochondrial genome lineages helped to date

4664-415: The expansion of the Seima-Turbino metallurgy phenomenon (1500–900 BCE). Scytho-Saka Culture and the Lute-shaped Dagger Culture existed in Manchuria . Upper Xiajiadian culture formed and interacted with that of the Karasuk and early Scytho-Saka periods in 1100–700 BCE. During this time, Karasuk-style bronzeware spread not only to the Upper Xiajadian, but also to North Korea , the Liaoning area , and

4752-469: The far eastern region of Russia ( Primorisky ). During this time, the Lute-shaped Dagger Culture was clearly present in Manchuria and the northern part of the Korean peninsula. The trading patterns on the Steppe Route show that the East Asian silk did not only come from China. The Neolithic remains (4000-3000 BCE) of the Goguryeo kingdom (Korea) showed earthenware with silkworm and mulberry leaf patterns and small carvings in rock of silkworms. The Records of

4840-439: The homeland of copper production, which then spread throughout the entire steppe zone over the following two millennia. At the beginning of the fourth millennium, copper technology was introduced in the Altai region by steppe herders. The Bronze Age was marked by an abrupt cooling of the climate, which at the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium B.C. gave way to a new temperature rise more favourable to farming and herding. The dual use of

4928-429: The inner Eurasian steppes. These early systems of exchange depended largely on the role of intertwined pastoralist communities. The result was a complex pattern of migratory movements, transformations and cultural interactions alongside the steppe route. In the 2nd millennium BCE there were major shifts of population over a wide area of Central Asia, and the whole picture of ethnocultural development changed. According to

5016-416: The lands through which the Elsick Mounth passes are within the Durris Forest; while this forest would have been a mixed deciduous forest in ancient times, currently it is managed as a coniferous monoculture with extensive amounts of clearfelling and subsequent replanting. Roman legions marched from Raedykes to Normandykes Roman Camp at the south of Peterculter as they sought higher ground evading

5104-425: The landscape over millennia. 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 50 km (31-mile) 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,

5192-421: 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 . Streets paved with cobblestones appeared in the city of Ur in the Middle East dating back to 4000 BC. The Royal Road was an ancient highway reorganized and rebuilt by the Persian king Darius

5280-657: 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

5368-438: The mineral was quarried in Khotan and Yarkand and sold to China. Communities were even more mobile on the Steppe Route after the introduction of carts . The end of the Bronze Age on the Eurasian Steppe route shows that production and a new economic organisation led to the accumulation of riches by a number of families and new economic interactions. Their male leaders then became warlords, clashing and striking alliances for

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5456-604: The missions and explorations of the Chinese imperial envoy Zhang Qian . The Chinese took great interest in the safety of their trade products and extended the Great Wall of China to ensure the protection of the trade route. Prior to the Silk Road an ancient overland route existed through the Eurasian Steppe . Silk and horses were traded as key commodities; secondary trade included furs, weapons, musical instruments, precious stones (turquoise, lapis lazuli, agate, nephrite) and jewels. This route extended for approximately 10,000 km (6,200 mi).  Trans-Eurasian trade through

5544-433: The most significant road builders of the ancient world. At the peak of the Roman Empire there were more than 400,000 kilometres (250,000 miles) of roads, of which over 80,000 kilometres (50,000 mi) were stone-paved. Another empire, that of the Incas of pre-Columbian South America , also built an extensive and advanced transportation system. Much later historic roads include the Red River Trails between Canada and

5632-420: The nomadic preliterate culture and craftmanship which tends to undermine notions that nomadic communities were necessarily less developed than sedentary ones. The nomadic practices of herding and simultaneously farming, in which horse-riding warfare practised by an elite played a central role spread in the area from around 1000 BCE. The later steppe nomads typically were organized communities, rotating their homes

5720-424: The north by the forests of Russia and Siberia . There was no clear southern boundary, although the southern semi-deserts and deserts impeded travel. The principal characteristic of the steppe landscape is its continental climate and the deficiency of moisture, which creates unstable conditions for farming. The steppe is interrupted at three points: the Ural mountains , the Altai mountains which gradually turn into

5808-408: The other hand, communities maintained close contacts with both their neighbors and with those further distant. French historian Fernand Braudel saw the presence of pastoral nomads as a disruptive force often interrupting periods of slow historical processes, allowing for rapid change and cultural oscillation. Newly studied archaeological sites such as Berel in Kazakhstan , an elite burial ground of

5896-441: 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

5984-517: 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 400,000 kilometres (250,000 miles) of roads, of which over 80,000 kilometres (50,000 mi) were stone-paved. In Gaul alone, no less than 21,000 kilometres (13,000 mi) of roadways are said to have been improved, and in Britain at least 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi). The courses (and sometimes

6072-405: The political rise of nomadic states. In the absence of discovered written language records from early Eurasian nomads , it is difficult to determine how they referred to themselves, and the various earliest cultures along the Steppe Road are mostly identified by distinctive burial arrangements and delicate artifacts. The quality of the artifacts are a testimony of the degree of sophistication of

6160-416: The predecessor of France, and East Francia became that of Germany. The Old Salt Route or Alte Salzstraße of the Hanseatic League was a medieval trade route in northern Germany that transported salt from Lüneburg to Lübeck . The Rennsteig is a ridgeway and an historical boundary path in the Thuringian Forest , Thuringian Highland and Franconian Forest in Central Germany . It

6248-440: The production of ornaments made of semiprecious stones ( lapis-lazuli , turquoise , spinel , quartz . Economic prosperity led to an exceptional richness of artistic expression that was to be found in the smaller forms, particularly in painted ceramics, small carved objects, ornaments inspired by wildlife, and funerary gifts. It was also conducive to a more complex organization of society. The first Bronze Age of Korea began with

6336-602: The region. The first modern humans to migrate to Asia and Europe were hunter gatherers ; they probably started to move from Africa at the time of the Green Sahara episode. Fossils excavated in Mount Carmel , Israel in 2002, show that Homo sapiens arrived earlier than previously thought at the gate of the Steppe Route 194,000–177,000 years ago and possibly interbred with Neanderthals who inhabited some parts of Eurasia. The overall migration pattern of these populations

6424-485: The rise of human society, and it was a significant contributor to the " Neolithic revolution ". Simultaneously, a new way of life emerged with the construction of more comfortable settlements for plant and animal domestication, craft activities (resulting in the wide use of ornaments) and burial practices, including the erection of the first burial mounds in the Chalcolithic or Eneolithic period (the transition between

6512-438: The road from central Athens to Aegaleo and Chaidari (the old route to Eleusis) is called after the ancient road. 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

6600-574: The rocks, and, by the easiest of grades, over or around hills". Steppe Route The Steppe Route was an ancient overland route through the Eurasian Steppe that was an active precursor of the Silk Road . Silk and horses were traded as key commodities; secondary trade included furs, weapons, musical instruments, precious stones ( turquoise , lapis lazuli , agate , nephrite ) and jewels. This route extended for approximately 10,000 km (6,200 mi).  Trans-Eurasian trade through

6688-521: The routes taken first by indigenous peoples and then colonists, especially in North America: However, Frank G. Roe disputes this theory – and its wider application – in "The 'Wild Animal Path' Origin of Ancient Roads". Some suggest that the portage routes of North American indigenous peoples followed "the game trails the animals had made around rough water. ... [And] as centuries passed, well-trodden paths were made, winding among

6776-602: The semi-nomadic groups of the late fourth and early third centuries BCE, known to Herodotus as the Arimaspians , were not only breeding horses for trade. They were also metallurgists, builders, potters, jewelers, woodcarvers and painters who left a durable influence at the confluent of the Eastern and Western world. By the end of the Pliocene , tectonic activity had created the major mountain ranges and lowlands, including

6864-468: 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

6952-564: The steppes and semi-deserts. Nomads rode small horses and knew how to fight from horseback, primarily with a bow that was the distinctive weapon from the steppe and sometimes even with a sword or a saber when the rider was more affluent. Members of these mobile, energetic and resourceful communities used light war-chariots with wheels having a diameter up to one meter with 10 spokes and drawn by horses, The pattern spread in many different directions and strengthened an already-robust system of vigorous and widespread exchanges within and sometimes beyond

7040-707: The surfaces) of many Roman roads survived for millennia; some are overlaid by modern roads. Francia or the Frankish Empire was the largest post-Roman Barbarian kingdom in Western Europe . It was ruled by the Franks during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages . It is the predecessor of the modern states of France and Germany . After the Treaty of Verdun in 843, West Francia became

7128-449: The transition to a nomadic existence. This lifestyle fostered a military culture necessary to protect herds and to conquer new territories. The specific geography of the steppe created an ecosystem capable of diffusing critical development features, including the spread of modern humans, animal domestication and animal husbandry, spoke-wheeled chariot and cavalry warfare, early metal production (copper) and trade, Indo-European languages , and

7216-538: The two extremities of the steppe road. It is estimated that the travel time for commercial goods from Constantinople (Istanbul) in Turkey to reach Gyeongju in Korea would not have exceeded six months. This Roman glass and other artifacts were passed through Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Manchuria to Gyeongju. The traded goods show that trade through the Steppe Route was still active in 600 CE. The interrelation of China with

7304-486: 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. Tracks provided links between farmsteads and fields, other farmsteads, and neighbouring long barrow tombs. They also joined

7392-644: The writings of Roman historian Dio Cassius , Romans saw high-quality silk for the first time in 53 BCE, in the form of Parthian banners unfurled before the Roman defeat at the battle of Carrhae . Various artifacts, including glassware, excavated from tombs in the Korean kingdom of Silla were similar to those found in the Mediterranean part of the Roman Empire, showing that exchange did take place between

7480-709: Was a connecting road between small independent states in Thuringia . The route crosses the Thuringian Forest and the slate mountains of Thuringia and Franconian Forest , stretching from Hörschel at the river Werra (near Eisenach ) to Blankenstein at the river Saale . It is part of the European long-distance paths network. The Via Regia (king's road) is a medieval road that ran from Frankfurt am Main to Görlitz in Lower Silesia, in what

7568-541: Was a permanent source of inspiration for artists and early craftsmanship. Hippocrates reflected on the impact of climatic changes, on subsistence, and advanced the idea of their influence on the organisation of human communities, as an explanation to populations migration. The demographic pressure on farming areas adjacent to the Steppe Route probably led the more fragile groups located at the periphery of those farming areas to migrate in search of better living conditions. Since rich pastures were not always available, it fostered

7656-589: 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' ( Irish : slighe ) 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 ,

7744-722: Was unsuitable for the swift movement of troops and equipment. 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. 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

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