Highways, Byways, and Road Systems in the Pre-Modern World

Notes on Contributors xiii

Series Editor’s Preface xvii

Preface xix

Introduction 1
Susan E. Alcock, John Bodel, and Richard J. A. Talbert

1 Overland Shortcuts for the Transmission of Buddhism 12
Jason Neelis

2 The Power of Highway Networks during China’s Classical Era (323 BCE–316 CE): Regulations, Metaphors, Rituals, and Deities 33
Michael Nylan

3 Privatizing the Network: Private Contributions and Road Infrastructure in Late Imperial China (1500–1900) 66
Nanny Kim

Appendix: Chinese Quotations and Glossary 84

4 Linking the Realm: The Gokaidô Highway Network in Early Modern Japan (1603–1868) 90
Constantine N. Vaporis

5 Obliterated Itineraries: Pueblo Trails, Chaco Roads, and Archaeological Knowledge 106
James E. Snead

6 Roads to Ruins: The Role of Sacbeob in Ancient Maya Society 128
Justine M. Shaw

7 The Chinchaysuyu Road and the Definition of an Inca Imperial Landscape 147
Catherine Julien

8 The Sahara as Highway for Trade and Knowledge 168
Pekka Masonen

9 From the Indus to the Mediterranean: The Administrative Organization and Logistics of the Great Roads of the Achaemenid Empire 185
Pierre Briant

10 The Well-Remembered Path: Roadways and Cultural Memory in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt 202
Jennifer Gates-Foster

11 Roads, Integration, Connectivity, and Economic Performance in the Roman Empire 222
R. Bruce Hitchner

12 Roads Not Featured: A Roman Failure to Communicate? 235
Richard J. A. Talbert

13 Road Connectivity and the Structure of Ancient Empires: A Case Study from Late Antiquity 255
Michael Maas and Derek Ruths

14 Jews and News: The Interaction of Private and Official Communication-Networks in Jewish History 265
Adam Silverstein

Index 276