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Open Atlas Maps 299,171 Kilometers of Roman Roads, Nearly Doubling Prior Estimates

Drawing on historical sources plus remote sensing, the map traces realistic routes, revealing how few roads are precisely located.

Overview

  • The Itiner-e dataset and interactive online atlas launched with a Scientific Data paper, offering free public access to an empire-wide road map circa AD 150.
  • Researchers report 299,171 kilometers (about 186,000 miles) of roads in 14,769 segments, split into 103,478 kilometers of main routes and 195,693 kilometers of secondary roads.
  • Expanded coverage in the Iberian Peninsula, Greece and North Africa, along with terrain-following paths through features like mountain passes, accounts for most of the increase.
  • Only about 2.7–3% of the network is located with high precision, roughly 7–7.4% is hypothetical, and the remainder is less precisely placed, providing a confidence map for future fieldwork.
  • The team synthesized earlier atlases and databases with archaeological records, milestones, historical itineraries, and modern and historical aerial and satellite imagery to build a single time-slice for AD 150 that can support studies of mobility, administration and disease spread.