AMMAN — Researchers from the
University of Oxford have
discovered three previously unknown
Roman military camps in the Arabian Desert,
using satellite images, according to the National News.
اضافة اعلان
The camps are believed to date back to 106AD, and to be
linked to the Roman takeover of the
Nabataean Kingdom, which centered on the
city of Petra in what is now Jordan.
The three camps are each in a "typical playing-card
shape", with opposing entrances along each side.
The westernmost camp is significantly larger than the other
two. The researchers believe the camps would have been built as temporary,
defensible stations to be used during campaigns.
Significance of the discoveryThe discovery is a "spectacular new find",
according to
Mike Bishop, an expert on the Roman military at the University of Oxford. Bishop said that "temporary camps reveal how they acquired (a
province) in the first place".
The camps provide important new insight into
Roman campaigning in Arabia, the researchers said.
The level of preservation of the camps is particularly
remarkable, as they may have only been used for days or weeks.
The study sets out that the newly discovered camps run in a
straight line towards Dumat Al-Jandal in what is now Saudi Arabia, but which
was then a settlement in the east of the
Nabataean Kingdom.
Questions remainAlthough the discovery is significant, it also raises
further questions for archaeologists. The researchers speculate that the
distance between each camp, 37km to 44km, was too far to be crossed by infantry
in a day.
They suggest instead that the camps were built by a cavalry
unit, which would have been able to travel over barren terrain in a single day,
possibly on camels. On the basis of the distance between the camps, there is
also a suggestion that another camp may have been located further west at the
later
Umayyad fort and well station at Bayir.
Archaeologists will need to confirm the date of the camps
through investigation on the ground.
Questions also remain as to why the western camp has twice
the capacity of the other two, and whether the force split, or whether half of
it was wiped out in a battle.
The paper has been published in the journal Antiquity.
Read more Around Jordan
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
