Declassified Cold War spy satellite images have revealed almost 400 previously unknown forts – sparking a rethink of the Roman Empire.
The forts are found scattered across modern-day Syria, Iraq and nearby regions of the eastern Mediterranean.
They were discovered in images taken by the CIA’s Corona and Hexagon reconnaissance missions during the 1960s and 1970s, surveilling the region from space as the US and Russia held their uneasy stand-off.
Archaeologists found 396 forts, adding to the 116 discovered during pioneering aerial surveys of the region in the 1920s by French archaeologist Antoine Poidebard.
The results of his flights suggested that, given the forts were mainly in a north-south pattern, they were built as defence measures against the empire’s rival superpowers, the Parthians and the Sasanians.
This theory has been widely accepted for decades, assuming the purpose of the forts was primarily for military purposes, to strengthen the Roman border.
However, one flaw in Mr Poidebard’s study was his tendency to fly where he thought the forts would be found, rather than scanning the entire region.
The newest cohort of forts shows they are scattered across the area, with no clear direction or particular lining up of the constructions.
This suggests the forts instead served a very different purpose.
Writing in the journal Antiquity, the authors said: ‘The addition of these forts questions Poidebard’s defensive frontier thesis and suggests instead that the structures played a role in facilitating the movement of people and goods across the Syrian steppe.’
Basically, the Romans were just as concerned with trading and goods as keeping a grip on their territory or winning more, building the forts to help move supplies as well as soldiers around.
It cost a lot of money to keep the empire running, so selling goods was essential and, as Rome itself grew, it required more and more imports of goods to keep its people fed and dressed.
In fact, trade routes criss-crossed the whole empire.
Interestingly however, some of the earliest forts predate the empire, having been built in the late Iron Age (750 BCE), but recent excavations suggest most were built and used between the second and sixth centuries AD.
It is also likely there were many more.
While the high resolution photos provided by the CIA missions offer a detailed perspective of the area, the authors note they also show ‘a landscape that has been severely impacted by modern-day land-use changes, including urban expansion, agricultural intensification and reservoir construction’.
Speaking to Space.com, lead author Jesse Casana said: ‘The real value in historical, high-resolution imagery like Corona and Hexagon is in preserving a picture of a landscape that by and large no longer exists.
‘Our study also helps show that an unknown number of other sites were also likely lost in the time between Poidebard’s flights in the 1920s and the Corona imagery of the late 1960s.’
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