Book

Archaeologies of Roads

Tuna Kalaycı, ed. Archaeologies of Roads. 2023.

Author

Tuna Kalaycı (ed.)

Date

14 December 2023

Links

More information on the website of the Digital Press

What happens if we think of roads not only as a static archaeological object but as a dynamic and complex phenomenon?

Inspired by this question, “Archaeologies of Roads” brings together various studies spanning diverse landscapes and epochs. The central premise of the book is to reveal the complexity of the road, be it a modern or an ancient one. The starting point is that the road is not only a container for action but also the action itself; roads are perpetual works in progress, continually shaping and being shaped by the world around them.

Authors contribute with road studies from different contexts, ranging from Bronze Age Pontic–Caspian steppes to Roman Iberia and from Ottoman Anatolia to modern-day China. The book has three sections: routes, methods, and metaphors and constructing histories, reflecting the diversity in and of road studies. As the chapters interweave, they collectively challenge approaches to understanding roads and hopefully inspire readers to transcend conventional boundaries of identification, mapping, and dating of roads. Reflecting the inherent diversity of studying of roads —as a phenomenon, the title of the book calls for many ways of doing road archaeology.