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Declassified photos from U.S. Cold War spy satellites have unveiled 396 previously unknown Roman forts across Iraq and Syria. Archaeologists now believe that these photos from the 1960s and 1970s call for a reassessment of Roman life in the region.

Previously, historians thought that the Romans had constructed these structures as a defense against Arab or Persian attacks. This belief originated in the 1930s when French archaeologist Antoine Poidebard conducted aerial surveys of the area in his biplane. He documented 116 Roman forts, which formed a line extending from the Tigris River in Iraq to the Euphrates River in Syria. It was perceived as a defensive wall.

However, the newly discovered forts do not conform to the linear pattern observed by Poidebard. Instead, these 396 buildings are scattered from east to west, surprising archaeologist Jesse Casana and his team. They now propose that the border between the two empires was not as fixed as previously thought. Rather than being solely for defensive purposes, they suggest that the Romans built these forts to facilitate communication, trade, and cultural exchange.

The team posits that the forts supported travelers engaged in trade, military activities, or cultural interactions. These structures appear to have been designed to enable movement rather than to keep people out.

Casana argues that Poidebard’s original mapping was limited due to discovery bias. If Poidebard had conducted aerial surveys across a wider area, he would have identified many more forts. This limitation was overcome by the declassified satellite imagery from the Cold War era, which covered a vast region.

Sadly, many of the forts have been destroyed due to war and construction. In the photos, researchers were only able to locate 38 of the 119 forts initially documented by Poidebard.

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