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The Transport System of ancient

Angkor –Roads. Part3
Roads of Angkor
The ancient Romans were famous builders. They left behind them
many bridges, canals, stone-paved roads and other engineering
masterpieces all throughout the Roman Empire. The vast Roman
Empire boasted a very large and extensive network of roads. It is
estimated that the roads in the network were more than 400,000
km long and that over 80,500 km out of those were stone-paved.
The road network was important in maintaining the stability of the
empire and its expansion. The roads were used for transport from
one location to another. Along the roads it was permitted to walk,
pass through, drive cattle and wheeled vehicles, or to engage in
traffic of any kind.
The ancient Roman roads were primarily built by the legionnaires
themselves. Engineers were regular members of the ancient Roman
army, and their knowledge of road, fort, aqueduct and bridge
construction was invaluable.

Road construction
There was no ‘one-size-fits-all’ ancient Roman technique for
building roads. Their construction method varied depending on the
geographical location, terrain morphology, geological structure and
available material. For example, different technical solutions were
required to build roads in marshy areas or in areas where the road
passed through a bedrock. Nevertheless, there were certain
standard rules that were followed.The public road system of the
Romans was thoroughly military in its aims and spirit. [9] It was
designed to unite and consolidate the conquests of the Roman
people, whether within or without the limits of Italy proper.
A legion on the march brought its own baggage train (impedimenta)
and constructed its own camp (castra) every evening at the side of
the road. Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the
maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built
from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of
the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.[1] They provided
efficient means for the overland movement of armies, officials,

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 Uday Dokras/Srishti Dokras

civilians, inland carriage of official communications, and trade

goods.[2] Roman roads were of several kinds, ranging from small
local roads to broad, long-distance highways built to connect cities,
major towns and military bases. These major roads were often
stone-paved and metaled, cambered for drainage, and were flanked
by footpaths, bridleways and drainage ditches. They were laid along
accurately surveyed courses, and some were cut through hills, or
conducted over rivers and ravines on bridgework. Sections could be
supported over marshy ground on rafted or piled foundations.
At the peak of Rome's development, no fewer than 29 great military
highways radiated from the capital, and the late Empire's 113
provinces were interconnected by 372 great roads. [3][5] The whole
comprised more than 400,000 kilometres (250,000 miles) of roads,
of which over 80,500 kilometres (50,000 mi) were stone-paved.[6]
[7]
 In Gaul alone, no less than 21,000 kilometres (13,000 mi) of
roadways are said to have been improved, and in Britain at least
4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi).[3] The courses (and sometimes the
surfaces) of many Roman roads survived for millennia; some are
overlaid by modern roads.

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 Uday Dokras/Srishti Dokras

The general appearance of such a metalled road and footway is

shown in an existing street of Pompeii.

1. Native earth, leveled and, if necessary, rammed tight.

2. Statumen: stones of a size to fill the hand.
3. Audits: rubble or concrete of broken stones and lime.
4. Nucleus: kernel or bedding of fine cement made of pounded
potshards and lime.
5. Dorsum or agger viae: the elliptical surface or crown of the
road (media stratae eminentia) made of polygonal blocks of silex
(basaltic lava) or rectangular blocks of saxum quadratum
(travertine, peperino, or other stone of the country). The upper
surface was designed to cast off rain or water like the shell of a
tortoise. The lower surfaces of the separate stones, here shown as
flat, were sometimes cut to a point or edge in order to grasp the
nucleus, or next layer, more firmly.
6. Crepido, margo or semita: raised footway, or sidewalk, on each
side of the via.
7. Umbones or edge-stones.
he average width of an ancient Roman road was between 5.5 to 6.0
m, and they consisted of several characteristic load-bearing layers,
regardless of the base on which they were built.
Ancient Roman roads consisted of several layers:

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 Uday Dokras/Srishti Dokras

 Foundation soil – the base on which a road was build was

compressed to be compact and to avoid structure settlement and
then covered with sand or mortar.
 Statumen – a layer that was laid on compacted foundation
soil, consisting of crushed rock of minimum granularity of 5 cm.
The thickness of this layer ranged from 25 to 60 cm.
 Rudus – a 20 cm thick layer consisting of crushed rock 5 cm
in diameter in cement mortar.
 Nucleus – a concrete base layer made of cement, sand and
gravel; 30 cm thick.
 Summum dorsum – the final layer consisting of large 15 cm
thick rock blocks.

Outside the cities, Romans were avid riders and rode on or drove
quite a number of vehicle types, some of which are mentioned

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 Uday Dokras/Srishti Dokras

here. Carts driven by oxen were used. Horse-drawn carts could

travel up to 40 to 50 kilometres (25 to 31 mi) per day,
[22]
 pedestrians 20 to 25 kilometres (12 to 16 mi). For purposes of
description, Roman vehicles can be divided into the car, the
coach, and the cart. Cars were used to transport one or two
individuals, coaches were used to transport parties, and carts to
transport cargo.
Of the cars, the most popular was the carrus, a
standard chariot form descending to the Romans from a greater
antiquity. The top was open, the front closed. One survives in the
Vatican. It carried a driver and a passenger. A carrus with two
horses was a biga; three horses, a triga; and four horses
a quadriga. The tyres were of iron. When not in use, its wheels
were removed for easier storage.
A more luxurious version, the carpentum, transported women
and officials. It had an arched overhead covering of cloth and was
drawn by mules. A lighter version, the cisium, equivalent to a gig,
was open above and in front and had a seat. Drawn by one or
two mules or horses, it was used for cab work, the cab drivers
being called cisiani. The builder was a cisarius.
Of the coaches, the mainstay was the raeda or reda, which had
four wheels. The high sides formed a sort of box in which seats
were placed, with a notch on each side for entry. It carried
several people with baggage up to the legal limit of 1000
Roman librae (pounds), modern equivalent 328 kilograms (723
pounds). It was drawn by teams of oxen, horses or mules. A cloth
top could be put on for weather, in which case it resembled a
covered wagon.
The raeda was probably the main vehicle for travel on the
roads. Raedae meritoriae were hired coaches. The fiscalis
raeda was a government coach. The driver and the builder were
both referred to as a raedarius.
Of the carts, the main one was the plaustrum or plostrum. This
was simply a platform of boards attached to wheels and a cross-
tree. The wheels, or tympana, were solid and were several
centimetres (inches) thick. The sides could be built up with
boards or rails. A large wicker basket was sometimes placed on

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 Uday Dokras/Srishti Dokras

it. A two-wheel version existed along with the normal four-wheel

type called the plaustrum maius.
The military used a standard wagon. Their transportation service
was the cursus clabularis, after the standard wagon, called
a carrus clabularius, clabularis, clavularis, or clabulare. It
transported the impedimenta (baggage) of a military column.
This project doesn’t just target archaeological remains but also
present-day communities estab-lished all along these axis. The
team has conducted different ethnographic surveys in two
countries. The first step was the Angkor-Phimai road. Then,
for the following step, we studied the continuation of the
Angkor to Phimai road further away from the capital, the Angkor-
Sdok Kok Thom road, called the west road, and also the
continuation of this road to an area currently in eastern
Thailand; the Angkor-Vat Phu, called the northeast road; and
the Angkor-Vijaya, called the east road.We excavated a number
of sites, using geo-informatic and geo-physic surveys (Lertlum
et al. 2013). At present, we are expanding our study to
identify the cultural relationship at a regional scale from the
ancient communication networks. This is based on a study
that has been running for the last 10 years. In this article
we introduce our research results of ongoing research.Feature of
the Royal RoadsFrom the earliest days of its history to the
Angkor period, Angkor was built and rebuilt during each new reign.
Border boundaries were increasingly remote from today’s
existing ones. The construction of reli-gious foundations, both
of royal and public interest were erected in many places of
the empire over the centuries. The city was gradually built in
a pattern around a strictly defined centered on a temple-
mountain and had many channels to connect the dif-ferent parts
of the city to those outside the urban system (Im 2005).For
the royal road from Angkor to Phimay, roads remained on
spot and its orbit from the departure point till Dangrek. The
road is visible within Siem Reap province and mostly seen in

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 Uday Dokras/Srishti Dokras

Uddor Meanchey province. Generally, royal roads were on

straight lines, but deviated in some areas on its orbit. The
royal roads were often crosscut with local roads
(12) (PDF) The Living Angkor Road Project: Connectivity within
Ancient Mainland Southeast Asia. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282993832_The_Living_
Angkor_Road_Project_Connectivity_within_Ancient_Mainland_South
east_Asia [accessed Jun 16 2021].

which linked to ancient agglomerations, provincial cities and

temples (Fig. 1).Roads were built at a high elevation, such as
dikes. They were structured via water draining with shoulders
at each side and were covered by a large crown between 6 m to
15 m wide. Water drainage was via a canal that flanked the
road, averaging around 6 m in measurement (Fig. 2). Generally,
royal roads measured about 30 m wide (included the crown,
shoulder, edge and water drainage). They were built up on
five different types of compact soil layers, and they were
rehabilitated from time to time in ancient periods (Im 2008). The
total distance of the royal road from Angkor to Phimay is about
250 km which is around 125 km in present Cambodia and
125 km in present Thailand (Fig. 3).Map of the Royal Road Network
Known to DateSystematically working on the resources cited above
along with the integration of advanced technology, we have
been able to produce a general map of the ancient road network of
the Khmer Empire. Six main roads have been identified that depart
from the capi-tal city of Angkor linking to provincial cities and
neighboring Kingdoms (See Fig. 4). One led to the north
linked to the range of Kulen mountain. This structure is still
visible for about more than 20 km.1 Toward the south, an
axe linked to the river port on the Tonle Sap Lake. Only
some distances could be seen because of the urban disturbance
in the region. An axe linked to the southeastern region of the
empire that led to an ancient city named Isanapura, actually,

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 Uday Dokras/Srishti Dokras

Sambor Prei Kuk in Kompong Thom prov-ince. This might

have linked to other cities in the southeast regions: Kompong
Cham, and southeast-ern provinces. We can calculate that the
distance from Angkor to Sambor Prei Kuk is around 110 km.
Because of its orientation and ease of recognition, we called
this road the “southeast road.” At present it is National road
number 6. To the east, a royal road is currently used as National
road number 66. This road is still visible for more than 100
km and linked the capital city of Angkor to Bankan
(previously known as Preah Khan Kompong Svay), a city that
flourished in the 12th century. This might go further east,
and probably led to those eastern provinces on the Mekong and
Vijaya, the capital of Champa in the 12th century, and passed by
the ancient cities at Mlu Prei and Bhavapura at Stung Treng.
Linking to the northeastern region, there is an important
route that departed from the capital city to the sacred temple
Vat Phu at Champasak (Im 2005; 2008). This road is mostly visible
as it is more than 200 km long and passed through several
ancient cities such as Beng Mealea, Koh Ker and the region of
Preah Vihear. This route did not end at Champasak, but it
might have extended to the north along the Mekong until Pak Hin
Bun, and then turn east to pass through the Annam-ese range at
the Hà Trai passage.2 After that, the road probably went
toward Hà-Tinh in the northeast crossing the valley Phô-Giang
and the plains of Huong-Son (Maspéro 1918). It then ran
parallel to the coast till Nghê-An. This road was supposed to
have been created by Suryavarman II, the builder of Angkor Wat,
who led his army with the support of Cham troops to invade
Annam (but were nonethe-less unsuccessful). Two other roads
ran to the west-ern regions with one directed to the basin of
Menam, and the last one linked to Phimay city. The latest we will
describe in more detail. These two axes are visi-ble across nearly all
the extended length of Cambo-dia’s territorie
(12) (PDF) The Living Angkor Road Project: Connectivity within

Indo Nordic Author’s Collective, STOCKHOLM & TAMPERE

 Uday Dokras/Srishti Dokras

Ancient Mainland Southeast Asia. Available from:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282993832_The_Living_
Angkor_Road_Project_Connectivity_within_Ancient_Mainland_South
east_Asia [accessed Jun 16 2021].

The Living Angkor Road Project: Connectivity within Ancient

Mainland Southeast Asia,Im Sokrithy,Surat
Letlumhttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/282993832_The_
Living_Angkor_Road_Project_Connectivity_within_Ancient_Mainland
_Southeast_Asia/citations

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 Uday Dokras/Srishti Dokras

During the Angkor period, there were five Royal Roads linking the
capital city of Angkor with provincial principal cities. Seven Temples
d'étape, six Fire Shrines, and 25 masonry bridges were constructed
along the East Royal Road to Preah Khan of Kompong Svay. We
conducted measurements of magnetic susceptibility and chemical
composition of laterite blocks and magnetic susceptibility of
sandstone blocks used for the construction of the bridges to
determine the supply ranges of the stone blocks and the
construction ages based on the results obtained in this study and
previous studies of Temples d'étape and Fire Shrines. The results
suggest that most of the sandstone blocks for the bridge
balustrades were supplied from quarries in the southeastern
foothills of Kulen Mountain, but that the bridges close to Preah
Khan of Kompong Svay have sandstone balustrades supplied from
nearby quarries. In contrast, cluster and principal component
analyses and t-tests using data for chemical composition and
magnetic susceptibility of laterite blocks revealed that there were
five sources of supply. These results elucidated that the supply
ranges of laterite blocks were narrower than those of the sandstone
blocks. Judging from magnetic susceptibilities, supply ranges,
shapes, orientations of bedding planes, and stacking methods of the
stone blocks, it was concluded that the construction age of the
bridges is highly likely to have been in the early Angkor Wat period.
Supply ranges of stone blocks used in masonry bridges and their construction period
along the East Royal Road in the Khmer Empire, Cambodia,Heritage Science 8(38):1-
16,Etsuo Uchida,Yuichiro Sakurai,Rathborith Cheng et
alhttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/340686435_Supply_ranges_of_stone_bloc
ks_used_in_masonry_bridges_and_their_construction_period_along_the_East_Royal_Roa
d_in_the_Khmer_Empire_Cambodiaa

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