A research study of declassified U.S. spy satellite imagery of the Middle East uncovered pictures of hundreds of ancient Roman forts spread throughout the Arabic world.
The study, published in the academic journal Antiquity, focused on a visual analysis of Cold War-era, American satellite images ranging from 1960 through 1986, Interesting Engineering (IE) reported. The findings reveal that the Roman Empire‘s presence in the Middle East was much more expansive than historians had originally understood, and challenged notions that the Romans were confined to a “fixed border” that divided it from the Far East portions of the Arabic world.(RELATED: Men Who Think About The Roman Empire Are Basically Nazis, Journalist Claims)
Declassified Cold War satellite imagery reveals nearly 400 new Imperial Roman forts on the Syrian frontier. pic.twitter.com/9lx9tcXz7K
— Stone Age Herbalist (@Paracelsus1092) October 26, 2023
The idea of a rigid border in the sandy desert region derives from the French archaeologist Antoine Poidebard, who argued that there is a conclusive “presumed eastern frontier of the Roman Empire,” IE noted. The Frenchman flew his biplane around the region wielding a camera, conducting aerial archaeology.
Before this study, classicists were under the impression that only about 116 Roman forts of this kind existed in the region, based on Poidebard’s gatherings which he published in 1934. However, the academics found 400 more fortresses from the declassified images in Syria as well as Iraq. (RELATED: Insane Discovery Suggests Buddhists Lived In Egypt During Roman Era)
The forts served in a militarized capacity while also operating as cultural trading hubs that facilitated the flow of travelers, merchants and goods, according to IE.