engleski

Discovering Roman roads of the Trilj area

It has often been suggested that the prosperity of the Roman civilization was greatly impacted by its complex network of roads. This seems likely if we consider the sheer amount of work needed to construct miles and miles of roads in areas with difficult terrain. One such terrain was the Dalmatian karst. After claiming Dalmatia, the Romans were in a position to establish a new land communication route from Aquileia to Dyrrachium. Of course, many other local roads branched from it. North of the provincial center, Salona, the road to Dyrrachium had to cross the river Cetina, a natural barrier. In Roman times, the crossing itself was controlled by the military camp of Tilurium, which was located on a nearby hill. The existence of roads there is suggested by the “Tabula Peutingeriana“, which depicts them in the area leading from Salona to the rest of the province. The crossing, it seems, was marked by the Tabula as pons Tilurio. Even today, the local town is called Trilj. Since this is one of the few places where the river could have been crossed safely, it offers great potential for any future research on historical routes. Some sections of the Roman road there are already known, as the one documented and presented on the site of Samoleč. The Austro- Hungarian cadastral and military surveys and modern satellite imagery prove an extensive network of roads in the area around the crossing. However, at the moment, differentiating Roman and later historical roads proved problematic. To help tackle this, smaller field surveys were conducted in the Trilj area in the last 4 years. The aim of the research was identifying surviving road sections, which could then be probed to better understand their chronology and construction. A larger study of Roman roads and pathways in the wider area around Salona would greatly improve our understanding of life in ancient times and also the placement of local archeological sites. This paper aims to be a step in that direction.

Roads ; Paths ; Antiquity ; Field survey

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