Ancient Roadside Inns

In one of the Time Team programs I reviewed last week, the team investigated a Roman mansio--the Empire's version of a way station or roadside hotel.

I've always been intrigued by these kinds of archaeological sites--probably because I spent all too many years of my archaeological career staying in motels and hotels within a few miles of whatever investigation I was working on.

For whatever reason, the Time Team videos prodded me to find out what scholars have written about way stations in the great road systems of the world: the Roman Road mansio, the Inca Trail tampu, and the Silk Road caravansary. Their similarities and differences make for fascinating investigations.

Anybody else up for a road trip?

• Rest Houses and Way Stations
• Caravansary
• Roman Travel, from my esteemed colleague N.S. Gill (Ancient History at About.com)