Susan E. Alcock & John Bodel 
Highways, Byways, and Road Systems in the Pre-Modern World [PDF ebook] 

Highways, Byways, and Road Systems in the Pre-Modern World
reveals the significance and interconnectedness of early
civilizations’ pathways. This international collection of
readings providing a description and comparative analysis of
several sophisticated systems of transport and communication across
pre-modern cultures.



* Offers a comparative analysis of several sophisticated systems
of overland transport and communication networks across pre-modern
cultures

* Addresses the burgeoning interest in connectivity and
globalization in ancient history, archaeology, anthropology, and
recent work in network analysis

* Explores the societal, cultural, and religious implications of
various transportation networks around the globe

* Includes contributions from an international team of scholars
with expertise on pre-modern India, China, Japan, the Americas,
North Africa, Europe, and the Near East

* Structured to encourage comparative thinking across case
studies

Spis treści

List of Figures and Tables ix

Notes on Contributors xiii

Series Editor’s Preface xvii

Preface xix

Introduction 1

Susan E. Alcock, John Bodel, and Richard J. A. Talbert

1 Overland Shortcuts for the Transmission of Buddhism 12

Jason Neelis

2 The Power of Highway Networks during China’s Classical
Era (323 BCE-316 CE): Regulations, Metaphors, Rituals, and
Deities 33

Michael Nylan

3 Privatizing the Network: Private Contributions and Road
Infrastructure in Late Imperial China (1500-1900) 66

Nanny Kim

Appendix: Chinese Quotations and Glossary 84

4 Linking the Realm: The Gokaidô Highway Network in Early
Modern Japan (1603-1868) 90

Constantine N. Vaporis

5 Obliterated Itineraries: Pueblo Trails, Chaco Roads, and
Archaeological Knowledge 106

James E. Snead

6 Roads to Ruins: The Role of Sacbeob in Ancient Maya
Society 128

Justine M. Shaw

7 The Chinchaysuyu Road and the Definition of an Inca Imperial
Landscape 147

Catherine Julien

8 The Sahara as Highway for Trade and Knowledge 168

Pekka Masonen

9 From the Indus to the Mediterranean: The Administrative
Organization and Logistics of the Great Roads of the Achaemenid
Empire 185

Pierre Briant

10 The Well-Remembered Path: Roadways and Cultural Memory in
Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt 202

Jennifer Gates-Foster

11 Roads, Integration, Connectivity, and Economic Performance in
the Roman Empire 222

R. Bruce Hitchner

12 Roads Not Featured: A Roman Failure to Communicate? 235

Richard J. A. Talbert

13 Road Connectivity and the Structure of Ancient Empires: A
Case Study from Late Antiquity 255

Michael Maas and Derek Ruths

14 Jews and News: The Interaction of Private and Official
Communication-Networks in Jewish History 265

Adam Silverstein

Index 276

O autorze

Susan E. Alcock is Director of the Joukowsky Institute for
Archaeology and the Ancient World and Joukowsky Family Professor of
Archaeology at Brown University. Her books include
Archaeologies of the Greek Past: Landscape, Monuments and
Memory (2001), Side-by-Side Survey: Comparative Regional
Analysis in the Mediterranean Region (co-edited with John
Cherry, 2004); and Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology:
Classical Archaeology (co-edited with Robin Osborne,
Wiley-Blackwell, 2007).

John Bodel is W. Duncan Mac Millan II Professor of Classics
and Professor of History at Brown University. His books include
Epigraphic Evidence: Ancient History from Inscriptions
(2001), Household and Family Religion in Antiquity: Contextual
and Comparative Perspectives (co-edited with Saul Olyan,
Wiley-Blackwell 2008), and Dediche sacre nel mondo
Greco-Romano: Diffusione, funzioni, tipologie (co-edited
with Mika Kajava, 2009).

Richard J.A. Talbert is William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor
of History and Classics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill, where he has taken the lead in establishing the Ancient World
Mapping Center. His books include Cartography in Antiquity and
the Middle Ages: Fresh Perspectives, New Methods (2008),
Geography and Ethnography: Perceptions of the World in
Pre-Modern Societies (co-edited with Kurt A. Raaflaub,
Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), Rome’s World: The Peutinger Map
Reconsidered (2010).