'Roman' roads were actually built by the Celts, new book claims

Telegraph (UK) ^ | Sunday, October 13, 2013 | Hayley Dixon

[SunkenCiv]

The findings of Graham Robb, a biographer and historian, bring into question two millennia of thinking about Iron Age Britain and Europe and the stereotyped image of Celts as barbarous, superstitious tribes...

"They had their own road system on which the Romans later based theirs," Mr Robb said, adding that the roads were built in Britain from around the 1st Century BC.

"It has often been wondered how the Romans managed to build the Fosse Way, which goes from Exeter to Lincoln. They must have known what the finishing point would be, but they didn't conquer that part of Britain until decades later. How did they manage to do that if they didn't follow the Celtic road?"

Mr Robb, former fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, first came up with the theory when he planned to cycle the Via Heraklea, an ancient route that runs a thousand miles in a straight line from the tip of the Iberian Peninsula to the Alps, and realised that it was plotted along the solstice lines through several Celtic settlements.

He mapped the positioning of hundreds of other towns and cities in France, Britain and Ireland and found that the Celt's had organised them to mirror the paths of their Sun God, created a network straight of tracks following the solstice lines across swathes of the continent...

"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."

[SunkenCiv]

Part of the Fosse Way in Gloucestershire, which a new book claims was built by the Celts, not the Romans [Photo: ALAMY]

[SunkenCiv]

The Ancient Paths: Discovering the Lost Map of Celtic Europe, review by Tim Martin

[SunkenCiv]

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.

[JoeProBono]

[MUDDOG]

stereotyped image of Celts as barbarous

I don't know if that image is widespread. The La Tene culture is seen as pretty advanced.

[bgill]

They didn’t build anything. Obama did.

[SunkenCiv]

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The Ancient Paths: Discovering the Lost Map of Celtic Europe by Graham Robb Kindle Edition

The Discovery of Middle Earth: Mapping the Lost World of the Celts by Graham Robb Kindle Edition

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[Michael.SF.]

The Celts: Just doing the work the Romans wouldn’t do.

[BfloGuy]

Well, I'm open to new evidence, but it does sound just a bit revisionist.

[Katya]

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.

[Fightin Whitey]

Not only could they run, they could drive.

[yarddog]

You take the high road and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll be in Scotland before ye.

[Flag_This]

"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.

[SharpRightTurn]

Great article. Thanks, SC.

[Grimmy]

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.

[MuttTheHoople]

They're driving on the wrong side of the road.

[SoCal Pubbie]

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.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[SunkenCiv]

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.