Joe Zammit Ciantar, Sta Luċija
Roman cart ruts' link to Bari?
This is a quote from Jenny Dobbins' undated article 'Stoned in the desert'. In it, Dobbins mentions Roman cart-ruts by the Nile, in Egypt, which have recently been 'obliterated'.
'Across the desert to Qena we ran alongside the Via Porphyrites, the old Roman route from the quarry at Mons Porphyrites, source of much of the beautiful red granite porphyry which the Romans prized and mined in great quantities.
The stone-filled carts were pulled by oxen from the quarries to the Nile and floated by barge and ship to Rome and far corners of the Empire. Up to seven or eight years ago the old Roman cart ruts were still visible in some places, but these have now been obliterated by careless tyre tracks.'
Last summer, while on holiday in Puglia, touring the old part of the city of Bari, precisely in the centre of Piazza Ferrarese, I came across an uncovered stretch of an old Roman road, with large rectangular slabs of hard white stones (see photo).
This is bordered with a railing, for one and all to see, but not to step on. A small framed legend on one side of this archaeological find says that the two rail-like ruts on the stones which are quite visible along the centre of the road were 'dug' for the smooth passage of Roman carts.
This stretch of road could have been part of the road which, in Roman times, from the busy port of Bari led to Apulia (Puglia) on the way to Via Traiana, and on to Rome.
These ruts are comparable to the cart ruts found especially on solid rock on uneven surfaces in both Malta and Gozo. Could there be any association between the usage of these ruts in Bari and those in Malta?
I felt I must share this archaeological possible affinity with the readers of The Sunday Times, but especially with archaeologists.
Another photo of this stretch of road may be seen on the site www.nenno.it/barint/sights/cityofbari.html.
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Paul Borg
Dec 21st 2009, 01:13
No affinity in the sense of a direct relationship, although may have been caused by the same type of action of animal drawn vehicle with dual, .evenly spaced contact with the ground. However the date of emergence of the two lots of ruts are widely divergent with the ones in Malta of the Neolithic, period thus preceding the Roman times by thousands of years, and more likely associated with the movement of megaliths for structures built in the same era, now being discovered all over the different parts of Malta. Studies are of a consensus that the Malta ruts were more likely caused by "blunt edge abrasion" over a very long period, whereas the ruts on Roman Roads were caused by metal rimmed rotating cart wheels. Such metal wheel cart ruts are frequently seen in Malta in the old narrow alleys in the countryside.