The results are published in Antiquity.
Circulation maps of forts documented by (leading) Poidebard (1934 ), compared to (bottom) distribution of forts discovered on satellite images. Credit: Figure by J.Casana et al., created using ArcGIS Pro version 3.0.
” I was surprised to discover that there were numerous forts and that they were dispersed in this method due to the fact that the conventional wisdom was that these forts formed the border between Rome and its enemies in the east, Persia or Arab armies,” states lead author Jesse Casana, a teacher in the Department of Anthropology and director of the Spatial Archaeometry Lab at Dartmouth. “While theres been a lot of historical argument about this, it had actually been mainly assumed that this circulation was genuine, that Poidebards map revealed that the forts were demarcating the border and served to prevent movement across it in some method.”
Declassified Imagery in Archaeological Research
For the study, the group drew on declassified Cold-War period CORONA and HEXAGON satellite imagery gathered between 1960 and 1986. Many of the imagery becomes part of the open-access CORONA Atlas Project through which Casana and coworkers established better techniques for fixing the data and made it readily available online.
The scientists taken a look at satellite images of roughly 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 square miles) of the northern Fertile Cresent. It is a place where websites show up especially well and is archaeologically significant, according to Casana. The team mapped 4,500 recognized websites and after that systematically recorded every other site-like function in each of the nearly 5 by 5 kilometer (3.1 mile by 3.1 mile) study grids, which led to the addition of 10,000 undiscovered sites to the database.
Discoveries and Categorization
When the database was initially developed, Casana had developed morphological categories based on the various features evident in the images, which permits researchers to run queries. One of the categories was Poidebards forts– distinct squares measuring roughly 50 by 100 meters (.03 x. 06 miles), comparable in size to about half a soccer field.
The forts would have been large enough to accommodate horses, soldiers, and/or camels. Based on the satellite images, a few of the forts had lookout towers in the corners or sides. They would have been made of stone and mud-brick or totally of the latter, so eventually, these non-permanent structures would have merged the ground.
While the majority of the forts that Poidebard recorded were probably destroyed or obscured by agriculture, land use, or other activities between the 1920s and 1960s, the team had the ability to find 38 of 116 of Poidebards forts, in addition to recognizing 396 others.
Of those 396 forts, 290 were found in the research study region and 106 were found in western Syria, in Jazireh. In addition to recognizing forts comparable to the walled fortresses Poidebard discovered, the team recognized forts with interior architecture features and ones built around a mounded citadel.
” Our observations are pretty interesting and are just a portion of what probably existed in the past,” states Casana. “But our analysis further supports that forts were most likely utilized to support the motion of soldiers, products, and trade items throughout the region.”
Reference: “A roadway or a wall? A remote sensing-based examination of strongholds on Romes eastern frontier” by Jesse Casana, David D. Goodman and Carolin Ferwerda, 26 October 2023, Antiquity.DOI: 10.15184/ aqy.2023.153.
The researchers taken a look at satellite imagery of approximately 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 square miles) of the northern Fertile Cresent. It is a place where sites show up especially well and is archaeologically significant, according to Casana. The team mapped 4,500 known sites and then methodically documented every other site-like function in each of the almost 5 by 5 kilometer (3.1 mile by 3.1 mile) study grids, which resulted in the addition of 10,000 undiscovered websites to the database.
The forts would have been big enough to accommodate camels, horses, and/or soldiers. Based on the satellite images, some of the forts had lookout towers in the sides or corners.
CORONA Images Showing Major Sites. Credit: Figure by J.Casana et al.; CORONA imagery courtesy U.S. Geological Survey.
Declassified images have led to the identification of 396 forts extending in between Syria and Iraq.
Two thousand years ago, the Roman Empire set up forts across the northern Fertile Crescent, a swath of land extending from contemporary western Syria to northwestern Iraq.
New Insights from Cold War Imagery
In the 1920s, 116 forts were documented in the area by Father Antoine Poidebard, who carried out one of the worlds very first aerial studies using a WWI-era biplane. Poidebard reported that the forts were constructed from north to south to establish an eastern border of the Roman Empire.
A brand-new Dartmouth study evaluating declassified Cold War satellite imagery reveals 396 formerly undocumented Roman forts and reports that these forts were built from east to west. The analysis refutes Poidebards claim that the forts lay along a north-south axis by revealing that the forts spanned from Mosul on the Tigris River to Aleppo in western Syria.