Cold War and Pacific Roman Empire
- Middle East, d.C. II-III. centuries. The Roman Empire built a defensive line of about 1,000 kilometers to preserve the eastern border and combat the attacks of the Persian army and nomadic tribes. This line stretched from north to south from Palmira to the present Turkey south. Or, so far, this hypothesis has been imposed on the basis of photographs and prospections by Antoine Poidebard.
The French Jesuit Antoine Poidebard (1878-1955) pioneered aerial archaeology. After flying a biplane during the First World War, in the 1920s he flew over the present Syria, Iraq and Jordan in search of archaeological remains. He carried out hundreds of aerial photographs and identified 116 Roman structures constituting the aforementioned vertical defense line. Occupying the Earth, he made prospections in some of these structures and AD. He obtained dates from the second and third centuries, confirming that the supposed fortifications were from the Roman Empire. The result of all these works was published in 1934 in La Trace de Rome dans le desert de Syrie ("The Imprint of Rome through the Syrian Desert").
In the middle of the Cold War, during the 1960s and 1970s, CIA spy satellites took thousands of photographs of this area. The first worldwide spy satellite program was launched from the United States, first thanks to the Corona satellites and later with the Hexagon satellites. So they got high-resolution images. Declassified these documents, these images are now in the hands of archaeologists. A team of researchers from Dartmouth University in New Hampshire (USA), led by archaeologist Jesse Casana, has analyzed the photographs and radically modified the hypothesis so far, according to the results published in the journal Antiquity.
The aim of these structures was to strengthen relations between the eastern provinces of the Empire and the non-dependent territories of Rome and to ensure trade. It was about opening rather than closing the limit.
Reverse scenario
Archaeologists have been able to identify in the photographs of the CIA 396 other structures that today cannot be seen from the air, since in the last five or six decades most of them have been covered by new buildings and agricultural holdings. And these structures do not form a line from north to south, as Poidebard said, but the structures that they have just identified reach the Tigris River basin, passing from west to east.
Much remains to be done, since excavations to confirm that all the structures seen in the photos are from that time must be done in situ. But meanwhile, Jesse Casana says: “The distribution of these structures has suggested that they did not function as border walls, nor as towers and fortresses to stop the attacks of Persians and nomads. The findings we have made lead us to another hypothesis: these buildings were part of a system of trade, communication and interregional transport based on caravans.” The buildings offered, among other things, the possibility of staying and catering to travellers, as well as the water for hydration of the cabins and cattle.
The aim of these structures was therefore to strengthen relations between the eastern provinces of the Empire and the non-dependent territories of Rome and to ensure trade. It was about opening rather than closing the border. Thus, the espionage work of the Cold War has shown that the border of the Roman Empire was more peaceful than expected.
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