This science fair project includes making a study of an ancient roadway or transportation network, that could include a map, a plan or cutaway drawing to show how the road or causeway was constructed, and information about the goods and events that occurred across its path.
Mapping Ancient Roads
Ancient transportation networks were built by our ancestors for a variety of reasons: as a way to exchange goods, as a way to control the widespread pieces of an empire, as a way to transport drinking water or sewage, even as a way to keep your feet from getting wet. They were built to accommodate foot traffic, or animal-assisted transportation, or canal barges or wooden carts. Sometimes they fell abandoned almost immediately, and sometimes they were rebuilt and reused over decades or centuries.
The oldest known roadway in history is the Sweet Track, a causeway built of timbers to cross a marshy area; and the best known is the Silk Road, but there lots more roads, canals, and causeways to discuss as important connections between early civilizations all over the world.
Interesting Questions
- Who named the road? What was its primary use and who used it? How long was it used?
- What countries and towns were on the road? What kind of transportation did the travelers use?
- What was the road built of? Why do you think that method was chosen?
- What were the dangers for traveling on the road? What famous adventurers traveled the road? What stories are told about the road?
Roads and Transportation Networks
- Abbot's Way (England)
- Silk Road (across Asia)
- Achaemenid Royal Road of Cyrus the Great (Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Israel, Palestine)
- Roman Roads (Viae Publicae) (throughout Europe)
- Sweet Track (England)
- The Inca Road (Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina)
- Inca Ceque System (Peru)
- Nazca Lines (Peru)
- Corlea Trackway (Ireland)
- Roman Aqueduct of Nimes (France)
- Cana-Abomey Road (Benin)
- Chaco Roads (New Mexico, USA)
Cities with Important Transportation Elements
- Tell Hamoukar (Syria)
- Merv Oasis (Turkmenistan)
- Oc Eo (Vietnam)
- Chaco Canyon (New Mexico, USA)
- Aguateca (Mexico)
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to the Characteristics of Ancient Civilizations, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
