Some authors do try to combine roads to wagon-construction using the tracks made in the roads. By measuring the distance between the center of the tracks, they are able to conclude various things about the distance of the wagon-wheels in different periods of time and in different geographical areas.
If this method worked perfectly, we could get all sorts of information trough our measurements on these tracks, but unfortunately it is not that simple at all. Beside the problem of correct measurement of the tracks, there are some problems which have to be considered before this method can be used properly, for example:
- Not all tracks are made in roman times
- Not all kinds of vehicles have the same distance between their wheels, and therefore
- Not all track-intervals are the same
- Not all kinds of vehicles were allowed inside the ancient city, and
- Not all kinds of vehicles could be used for transportation in mountainous areas
Beside the above mentioned problems we have to consider the differences between the “track-ways” (German: Geleise-strassen) and the paved roman roads, where tracks of wagon often are visible, too. Some of the tracks in the latter might be pre-made as in the case with track-ways, but some of them might be made due to usage of the roads. Via Amerina at Falerii Novii, Italy (see photo left) is a paved roman road in which it is possible to see the tracks made by usage, but on the left side of the paving the earlier road, cut out of the bedrock in a track-like style, is still visible.
When transferring this method of work to the work on roman wagons the first problem is to know when we are dealing with road-tracks actually used by roman wagons, and there-next to eliminate the tracks also used in post-roman times. The paved roads are often made in roman times, which goes for some of the track-ways in central Italy and the Alps etc, too, but many of these roads are also used in early medieval times or even later, so actually combining these tracks to roman wagons might be a bit far-fetched.
But then again, some roads seem to bear marks of roman, and in some cases only roman, wagons, which is why they in particular are interesting for this study. Here the tracks in some of the roads crossing the Alps and the roads in Pompeii have special interest, because we can be pretty sure on their date. In Pompeii we know that no vehicle drove on the roads after AD 79, and therefore the tracks (almost) certainly are made by roman vehicles. In the mountain areas not all tracks are of interest, but close to some of them roman artifacts are excavated, which again lead some researchers, among others Heinz 2003 (see bibliography), to conclude that roman track-ways has an interval of 107 cm between each track center. This distance, however, can only be connected to wagons able to drive in this area; the lighter two-wheeled carts.
