COURTESY MICHAEL EISENBERG
The Golan Heights boasts one of the best-preserved Roman roads in the southern Levant. Running from the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee to the Syrian village of Nawa, the road has been known for decades. Recent archaeological work along its length, however, is providing new insights into the social and political climate of the area at the time of the road’s construction in the early 160s CE.
Probably built in anticipation of the impending Parthian War (163–167 CE), the road was part of a network connecting the coastal cities of Tyre and Akko to inland Syria. Strikingly, however, although it provided easy travel between vital supply centers and economic hubs, it did not connect local villages to the rest of the Roman world, instead largely bypassing the region’s predominantly Jewish communities.
Although it is possible the road simply followed the easiest topographical route through the region, its avoidance of local villages and a trio of recently excavated Roman watchtowers built at various points along the road suggest Rome remained concerned about internal conflict across the area. Indeed, archaeologists believe the watchtowers were built to protect those on the road from the local population, which evidently was still hostile to Roman rule even several decades after the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132–135 CE).
The Golan Heights boasts one of the best-preserved Roman roads in the southern Levant. Running from the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee to the Syrian village of Nawa, the road has been known for decades. Recent archaeological work along its length, however, is providing new insights into the social and political climate of the area at the time of the road’s construction in the early 160s CE. Probably built in anticipation of the impending Parthian War (163–167 CE), the road was part of a network connecting the coastal cities of Tyre and Akko to inland Syria. Strikingly, however, […]
