Roman Road Summative
Roman Building Methods
Army Surveyors, also known as Agrimensores or “Land Measurers”, and engineers would look over the potential build location and started clearing the land for construction
The Agrimensores used a special tool called a “Groma” (Picture #1) to measure and plan the line of the road. Its pole was planted into the ground. There were two wooden arms atop the pole perpendicular to each other, and the same length. A lead-weighted line hung from each end of the arms.
The Groma worked by first being calibrated to be in line with the rad built behind it. Then one worker would go ahead with a pole. The Agrimensor looked down the Groma and instructed the poleman to adjust his position until they were in line with the Groma. A trench was then dug around the measured area to mark the place for the road’s …show more content…
This was hard and compact, and as such it served as the foundation for the rest of the road.
The next layer up was called the “Rudus” is a layer of Broken stones, Pebbles, and Mortar. This is used as another tough layer to support the top layers.
The second layer from the top was called the “Nucleus.” The Nucleus is a layer of lime and cement with broken tiles. This layer provides support and holds together the layer above.
The Topmost layer is called the “Summum Dorsum.” The Summum Dorsum was a layer of paving stones that were curved up, and lowest at the edges. These stones were often fit immaculately and very little to no error was tolerated. There were ditches dug on the sides of those roads. These ditches went as deep as the Rudus and were about as wide as the edges of the road. The purpose of these ditches was to have any water that landed on the road would roll down and drain into the ditch.
Milestones
Milestones were placed every mile to show the distance one had travelled on the
Roman Building Methods
Army Surveyors, also known as Agrimensores or “Land Measurers”, and engineers would look over the potential build location and started clearing the land for construction
The Agrimensores used a special tool called a “Groma” (Picture #1) to measure and plan the line of the road. Its pole was planted into the ground. There were two wooden arms atop the pole perpendicular to each other, and the same length. A lead-weighted line hung from each end of the arms.
The Groma worked by first being calibrated to be in line with the rad built behind it. Then one worker would go ahead with a pole. The Agrimensor looked down the Groma and instructed the poleman to adjust his position until they were in line with the Groma. A trench was then dug around the measured area to mark the place for the road’s …show more content…
This was hard and compact, and as such it served as the foundation for the rest of the road.
The next layer up was called the “Rudus” is a layer of Broken stones, Pebbles, and Mortar. This is used as another tough layer to support the top layers.
The second layer from the top was called the “Nucleus.” The Nucleus is a layer of lime and cement with broken tiles. This layer provides support and holds together the layer above.
The Topmost layer is called the “Summum Dorsum.” The Summum Dorsum was a layer of paving stones that were curved up, and lowest at the edges. These stones were often fit immaculately and very little to no error was tolerated. There were ditches dug on the sides of those roads. These ditches went as deep as the Rudus and were about as wide as the edges of the road. The purpose of these ditches was to have any water that landed on the road would roll down and drain into the ditch.
Milestones
Milestones were placed every mile to show the distance one had travelled on the