The Roads of Ancient Cyprus

Cyprus lies at the cultural crossroads of the Levant and is famous for its rich archaeological heritage, yet the ancient road network of the island has never been systematically studied. Based on the author´s fieldwork in Cyprus over more than a decade, as well as a close reading of the literary and epigraphic source material, The Roads of Ancient Cyprus traces the evolution of the island´s road system from the Classical periode (5th century BC) to the late Roman period.

In a series of introductory chapters, Bekker-Nielsen sets the ancient road system in its societal, legal and technological context and questions some widespread assumptions about ancient roads: for instance, that they were primarily constructed for the use of soliders and couriers, or that Roman roads followed a clearly defined standard pattern. The following chapters provide a detailed description of the island´s road network, region by region. In the Appendix the reader will find a corpus of all ancient milestones from Cyprus.

A traffic historical thesis is very rarely published in Denmark. The most recent theses were Alex Wittendorff´s Alvej og kongevej (1973) and Peer Ole Schovsbo´s Oldtidens vogne i Norden which were both written with a Nordic perspective. Within the last few years, Danish traffic historical research has widened its field to include the Mediterranean countries and thus articles on the Roman art of engineering and on caravan stations in the Levant have been included. The publication is lavishly illustrated with maps and photographs, and this invaluable documentation is an integrated part of the thesis.

Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen is a lecturer in ancient history at the University of Southern Denmark at Esbjerg. His previous publications include The Geography of Power (Oxford 1989) and numerous articles on the geography and history of ancient Cyprus.