During the 20th century several studies of ancient infrastructure revealed that remains of main road structures from historic as well as prehistoric times still exists throughout Denmark. However, during the generation of a national database based on inquiries throughout the country, this became even more evident with the accumulation of additional traces of these long-term structures of traffic. Due to landscape formation the structures are most evident and best preserved on the slopes of river valleys.
In the course of the exploration of some of the parts of the main routes several amazing particulars were exposed: such as the immense extent of roads preserved in the Danish periphery, the long duration of use of these structures, in some places a huge impact on the landscape, the range from wide bands of simple wheel tracks to deep run up canyons and the vast area that has been used for travelling. The understanding of these routes leads to further questions about the extent to which some of the structures are purely man made or merely the features of nature which have been used.
The ancient road network of Denmark will be presented in the paper along with some slides showing the extent of other prehistoric wetland sites.

Location

Norcroft Centre, University of Bradford