AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Archaeologists in the Netherlands have uncovered what they believe is part of the military road Roman soldiers patrolled nearly 2,000 years ago while guarding against hostile Germanic tribes at the Roman Empire’s northern boundary.
Known in Latin as the “limes,” the road was in use from roughly A.D. 50 to A.D. 350, before it fell into disrepair and eventually disappeared underground, said archaeologist Wilfried Hessing, who is leading the excavations in Houten, about 30 miles southeast of Amsterdam.
The stretch of road found in Houten is believed to have connected two forts – Traiectum, which gives its name to the modern city of Utrecht, and Fectio, modern Vechten. Wooden poles were discovered at the site. The poles were used to protect the roadsides from erosion, and experts hoped to use tree-ring counting techniques to determine the exact date they were cut, Hessing said.
“It was used for trade, but it was first and foremost part of a military strategy to guard the border,” he said. With a road “you can respond more quickly, so you need fewer troops, just like today.”
The road was found by the Dutch train company Prorail during preparations to add extra rail lines in the area. “It’s in very good condition,” said Houten city spokeswoman Marloes van Kessel.
Excavations of other parts of the limes are also being conducted in other European countries, and the United Nations is considering declaring it a world heritage site.
Hessing said the road was built of a sloping mound of sand and clay, interspersed with layers of gravel and smashed seashells, which would have stood about a yard above nearby fields. The top layer of hard-packed gravel is unusually well-preserved at the site.
Pottery shards were used as filler material and will help experts in dating the road, Hessing said. The road was also flanked by drainage channels, and the wooden poles were used to shore up the foundation.
Romans first entered this part of the Netherlands under Julius Caesar in the year 53 B.C.
According to the Roman historian Tacitus, an uprising began in A.D. 69 when a local Germanic tribe captured two coastal forts. Roman soldiers may have retreated eastward along the road to more heavily protected forts in present-day Germany.
A year later, after first losing a battle on a flooded, marshy field near Nijmegen, the Romans pacified the Batavians, the tribe that was the main instigator of the rebellion.
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