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Satellite images taken during the Cold War era have revealed almost 400 previously unknown Roman forts in Iraq and Syria. The discoveries, published in the academic journal Antiquity, have challenged the existing understanding of Rome’s eastern front nearly 2,000 years ago.

Previously, Antoine Poidebard, a French Jesuit priest, had conducted aerial surveys of the area in the 1920s. He identified 116 Roman forts along a 1,000 km border, suggesting they were a defensive line against Arab and Persian invaders. The newly uncovered research, however, has found an additional 396 forts, indicating that the region likely played a significant role in global trade.

Lead author Jesse Casana, a professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College, suggested that the forts served to facilitate the movement of people, goods, and military assets between the east and west. The findings challenge previous theories that saw the forts as part of a north-south defensive barrier. Instead, the newly discovered forts form an east-west line connecting the Tigris River with the Mediterranean.

The satellite images used in the study were obtained from declassified spy images from the CORONA and HEXAGON satellite programs. The CORONA program, initiated in the late 1950s, was focused on gathering intelligence about the Earth’s surface. On the other hand, the HEXAGON program, which ran from 1971 to 1986, collected vast amounts of photographic film that covered 877 million square miles of the planet. These images were instrumental in identifying potential threats.

Casana suggests that future research should explore other regions of the world and incorporate different types of imagery to expand our understanding of historical sites.

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