Saw a Roman road under a parking lot that got me thinking about change

I was helping clear some brush for a site near Chester last month and the dig team exposed this section of old Roman road. The cobbles were still solid after 1,800 years, but the asphalt overlay from the 1960s was all cracked and weedy. Funny how modern stuff falls apart faster than the ancient stuff. Has anyone else noticed old infrastructure outlasting newer builds at a dig?

2 comments

2 Comments

robinwalker2d ago

Sixty years and the asphalt's already falling apart while the Roman stuff is still solid" yeah that's wild. I've seen similar things on smaller scale digs but never something that dramatic, the Romans really knew how to make stuff last. Makes you wonder what future archaeologists will think when they find our crumbling parking lots.

thompson.finley2d ago

Buddy of mine stepped on a Roman tile and it didn't even crack.