This is probably an inappropriate name for this section. In the process of deconstructing the role of roads in ancient Rome I discovered in the end I had more connections left to pursue than I had begun with. The artifact plays complicated and often illusive roles in our lives and it is often hard to determine what those functions are. The gap of two thousand years and the information lost during this period does not fascilitate the process of determining the personal level of an artifact. In order to get a sense of the personal level we use contemporary examples combined with the archaeological and literary evidence to reconstruct these ancient via and their functions. Roman roads were means of transportation as roads are today but they performed for functions than roads do today because of their centrality to infrastructure and the existance of the system.

Roman Road: Artifact

• not just an object
• also an infrastructure
• represented culture and identity
• mega-machine
• created work
• organization and division of infrastructure surrounding roads

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