commodities, travelled by rivers. The availability of water transport is
another of the key linking factors in our‘super-region’.^82 The Haliakmon
and the Loudias Rivers, like the Axios, the Nestos, and the Hebros, were
major arteries for goods travelling inland during the summer months,
when the volume of water was sufficient forflat-bottomed boats and
rafts, and quiet enough to make larger transports viable. The results of
river traffic can often be recognized by extended distribution patterns,
with distinct concentrations following their course and those of major
tributaries.^83 What began perhaps as a system of regular boatloads of salt
to particular regional nodes, distributed therefrom to other destinations,
developed an increasingly varied range of components, as the existence
of reasonably predictable consignments made it feasible to plan for other
commodities that could travel with them.
Current research is beginning to illuminate the kinds of routes and
roads that emerged during thefirst millenniumbcprior to the expansion
of metalled roads under Roman administration, which begins in the
Balkans with the Via Egnatia. Most of the information acquired so far
relates to the course of these roads, rather than to their structure and
appearance. Paved surfaces are found in urban centres. Away from these
foci, there is likely to have been a variety of surface materials, depending
on terrain. Pre-Roman roads seem to have lacked a uniform character. In
central and southern Greece, there are extensive traces of cart roads with
parallel lines of stone.^84 In northern Greece, Yannis Pikoulas has
expanded a project begun in the Peloponnese with an ambitious pro-
gramme in the Pindhos range, using upland fortresses built in the time of
Philip II as a primary set of orientation points, on the basis of which he
has explored a series of six separate routes across the high Pindhos west
of Grevena, to link up with the lowland roads more readily identified
during archaeological surveys, particularly around Edessa and in the
(^82) Chiverrell and Archibald 2009 on seasonalflows; see above, Ch. 4.
(^83) Vardarski Rid: Mitrevski 2001; a river galley is shown on a Philippopolitan coin of
Antoninus Pius: Mushmov no. 5115; the river god Hebros is a common reverse image on
the city’s bronze coins of the imperial period: Mushmov nos 340 (Domitian); 5065, 5067,
5116 – 120; 5125 (Antoninus Pius); 5177 (Hadrian); <www.wildwinds.com/moushmov/
philippopolis.html>.
(^84) Most recently Pikoulas in Korres 2009, 244–8, on roads for wheeled traffic—parallel
rails/rail-like arrangement of slabs, 1.4 m apart; see also, in the same volume, A. Matthaiou,
22 – 33, epigraphic evidence on roads; on the road system of Attica, G. Steinhauer, 34–73,
including a detailed description of roads, photographs from recent excavations, and
consideration of construction techniques and historical value; see esp. 44–5,figs. 3.4 and
3.5: road Athens–Acharnai; 50–1 andfigs 3.11–3.12, road to Marathon and adjacent
buildings; 55,fig. 3.15, ancient road between Spata and Loutsas, running alongside the
modern road.
224 Regionalism and regional economies