Archaeological Views: Walking Roads

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The evidence for Roman-period roads in Judea-Palestine is abundant. Imperial roads were constructed using the same methods as elsewhere—with milestones at fixed distances. These milestones bear inscriptions that list the builder’s name and the distance and destinations of the road. During the second and third centuries C.E., Roman engineers built many new roads all over the country. This road system allowed supplies to be moved between the main urban areas and army centers.

But in our study of these roads, we noticed something else: At the pass of Beit Horon, northwest of Jerusalem, we first noticed a few curved steps, about 5.5 feet wide, alongside the Roman imperial road, the latter more than double the width of the steps. Both led toward Jerusalem. We assume that the curved steps were constructed first for walking, and only later a paved road was constructed beside them. The paved road had a low incline and a serpentine design, suitable for animal-drawn wagons.

The Jewish historian Josephus called the traditional pilgrim road to Jerusalem up the Beit Horon ascent a “public road” (Greek: Demosia hodos),¹ or “[the road] that bears the people” (Greek: Leophoros).² This road was no doubt used by Jewish pilgrims on their way to the Temple in Jerusalem before its destruction by the Romans in 70 C.E.

The edict to “appear before the Lord” in the Jerusalem Temple during the three festivals of Sukkot (Tents or Booths), Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Weeks) is found in Exodus 34:22–23 and Deuteronomy 16:16. The Book of Nehemiah and rabbinic literature mention additional occasions to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem—to bring wood offerings to the Temple and to assure that the priestly divisions would ascend to officiate in the Temple.³

During the First Temple period and the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, Jewish settlements were located in the mountains from Gophna to Hebron, as well as in the region of Jericho. In the Second Temple period, Jewish settlement spread to the Judean lowlands, the Galilee, Transjordan, the Babylonian diaspora, Antioch, Egypt and other countries in the Mediterranean basin.

Ancient literary sources also describe crowds of pilgrims walking to Jerusalem, adorned in their finery, singing and playing musical instruments, carrying babies in their arms and bringing birds and animals for sacrifice in the Temple.

Some ancient passages describe the large numbers of Jewish pilgrims who would gather in Jerusalem from all over the country on the three main pilgrimage (Shalosh Regalim) festivals—Sukkot,⁴ Shavuot⁵ and Pesach.⁶ In our research, a great deal of evidence from archaeologists, surveyors and travelers testifies to an extensive multi-branched walking-road network—with curved, steep, rock-hewn ascents. In our opinion, these rock-cut steps were created for pilgrims walking to Jerusalem.

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In the Second Temple period, stone vessels were valued because they were not subject to ritual impurity under Jewish law. In our opinion, the stone steps in these pilgrimage roads should be seen in this context: In many cases, the steps were cut as part of the preparation of “pure roads” so that the priests and the people could avoid impurity on their way to the Temple in Jerusalem.

The evidence for Roman-period roads in Judea-Palestine is abundant. Imperial roads were constructed using the same methods as elsewhere—with milestones at fixed distances. These milestones bear inscriptions that list the builder’s name and the distance and destinations of the road. During the second and third centuries C.E., Roman engineers built many new roads all over the country. This road system allowed supplies to be moved between the main urban areas and army centers. But in our study of these roads, we noticed something else: At the pass of Beit Horon, northwest of Jerusalem, we first noticed a few curved […]