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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GameDaddy" data-source="post: 8075751" data-attributes="member: 80711">These roads existed before the Roman Republic was even founded! They were just documented in the time of the Holy Roman Empire, because until then, ....literacy wasn't a thing in Germany. Derp. There are other older roads of course that predate the Romans all over Europe. I'm going to highlight a few of these now and add some additional commentary so that everyone here knows just how full of you know what CapnZapp is. Just like the Romans who were ignorant about the pre-existing road network in Europe, CapnZapp derides what he doesn't know. Way to go there!There was the Kulmer Stieg. This is a synonym for the transport links from the Elbe valley over the eastern part of the Eastern Ore Mountains to Bohemian Chlumec u Chabařovic (German: Kulm), hence the name which means "Kulm Trail". It is an ancient road system of partly derelict and unmetalled historic transport routes. These historic long-distance routes have been uncovered today thanks to archaeological discoveries. The routes all head south from the Elbe valley between Dresden and Pirna and cross the Eastern Ore Mountains over mountain passes on the Saxon side between Fürstenwalde in the west and Oelsen in the east. The lowest crossings are located near Mohelnice from where they continue via Habartice and the Geiersberg as well as Krasný Les and further on over the Nollendorf Pass to Chlumec. The Kulmer Steig was an especially good transport route because the road cut a passage through untamed wilderness and 30 kilometres could be covered in a day on foot. In places it overlaps with the Old Kings Way (Alter Königsweg or Via Regia) from Cologne to Kraków and Berlin to Prague and the Salt Road (Salzstraße) from Halle to Prague.Then there is the Rennstieg. The Rennsteig is a ridge walk as well as an historical boundary path in the Thuringian Forest, Thuringian Highland and Franconian Forest in Central Germany. The long-distance trail runs for about 170 km (110 miles) from Eisenach and the Werra valley in the northwest to Blankenstein and the Selbitz river in the southeast.  The Rennsteig is also the watershed between the river systems of the Weser, Elbe and Rhine. The catchment areas of all three river systems meet at the Dreistromstein ("Three Rivers Rock") near Siegmundsburg..These Neolithic roads existed in Brittannia as wellThe Harrow Way (also spelled as "Harroway") is another name for the "Old Way", an ancient trackway in the south of England, dated by archaeological finds to 600–450 BC, but probably in existence since the Stone Age. The Old Way ran from Seaton in Devon to Dover, Kent. Later the eastern part of the Harrow Way become known as the Pilgrims Way, following the canonisation of Thomas Beckett and the establishment of a shrine in Canterbury, Kent. This pilgrimage route ran from Winchester, Hampshire, via Farnham, Surrey, to Canterbury Kent. The western section of the Harrow Way ends in Farnham, the eastern in Dover.The name may derive from herewag, a military road, or har, ancient (as in hoary) way, or heargway, the road to the shrine (perhaps Stonehenge). It is sometimes described as the 'oldest road in Britain' and is possibly associated with ancient tin trading.There is also the Ridgeway. The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk ridge of the Berkshire Downs to the River Thames at the Goring Gap, part of the Icknield Way which ran, not always on the ridge, from Salisbury Plain to East Anglia. The route was adapted and extended as a National Trail, created in 1972. The Ridgeway National Trail follows the ancient Ridgeway from Overton Hill, near Avebury, to Streatley, then follows footpaths and parts of the ancient Icknield Way through the Chiltern Hills to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire. The National Trail is 87 miles (140 km) long.For at least 5,000 years travellers have used the Ridgeway. The Ridgeway provided a reliable trading route to the Dorset coast and to the Wash in Norfolk. The high dry ground made travel easy and provided a measure of protection by giving traders a commanding view, warning against potential attacks. The Bronze Age saw the development of Uffington White Horse and the stone circle at Avebury. During the Iron Age, inhabitants took advantage of the high ground by building hillforts along the Ridgeway to help defend the trading route. Following the collapse of Roman authority in Western Europe, invading Saxon and Viking armies used it. In medieval times and later, the Ridgeway found use by drovers, moving their livestock from the West Country and Wales to markets in the Home Counties and London. Before the Enclosure Acts of 1750, the Ridgeway existed as an informal series of tracks across the chalk downs, chosen by travellers based on path conditions. Once enclosures started, the current path developed through the building of earth banks and the planting of hedges.One interesting thing that the ancient neolithic roads had in common, both in England, and across Europe, is that they typically followed along a ridgeway, or a path along high ground. If you asked the ancient people what path they would choose, they would of course, answer... "The Highway" or "High Road." which referred to the ancient neolithic tracks that existed prior to the arrival of the Romans, and many of which dated back to the Stone Age. Our ancestors were both smarter, and much more sophisticated than modern people are generally aware of. There are of course many more of the ancient roads. Many of these led almost directly from one ancient henges to other ancient henges. These are just some of the better documented ones. Many modern highways are built right over them. Ditto that for Roman roads. Many modern highways are built almost directly over ancient Roman roads, A1 I'm looking at you!Kulmer Stieg<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulmer_Steig" target="_blank">Kulmer Steig - Wikipedia</a>Rennstieg<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennsteig" target="_blank">Rennsteig - Wikipedia</a>The Harrow Way<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrow_Way" target="_blank">Harrow Way - Wikipedia</a>The Ridgeway<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ridgeway" target="_blank">The Ridgeway - Wikipedia</a></blockquote>

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