Bridges and Fords?

[David Kush]

Terrain question. I'll start off with extreams.
Late Roman Armies when defending in their empire are very likely to have proper stone bridges.
Early Germany armies when defending their homeland are not, most likely fords, maybe unusable when the water course is in spate. Perhaps small wooden affairs on small sreams.

I wouldn't mind some sort of guide for all the other armies terrain choices.  Any books out there?

Britain for instance had many fine bridges when the Romans left. Where they all kept in good repair as things started to fall apart in the dark ages?

When and where was the first permanent stone bridge built in Greece?

Thanks for any input.

[aligern]

Think of ferries too and of crossing rivers on inflated skins like Assyrians or using the shield as a float and kicking along behind it.

In 63 AD the Parthian king had a defeated Roman army build a bridge across a river for him, but he crossed on an elephant whilst his horses swum the stream with hs attendants.
Roy

[Duncan Head]

When and where was the first permanent stone bridge built in Greece?

Possibly the oldest existing arch bridge is the Mycenaean Arkadiko bridge in Greece from about 1300 BC. The stone corbel arch bridge is still used by the local populace.

[Sharur]

There was a discussion of seaborne landings on the General Discussion Forum around the turn of this year (2013-14), Beach Assaults in Ancient Times, which included some comments on river-crossing mechanisms of various types which might be of some use here too.

However, Britain apparently had fine bridges before the Romans arrived, such as the remains of that found at Vauxhall in London, dating to 1500 BC or so, or those at Testwood Lakes in Hampshire, again dating to c.1500 BC, where a fragment of a boat, claimed as sea-going, has been found as well (same period, Middle Bronze Age). The timber causeway at Flag Fen, appropriately in Cambridgeshire, seems to have been a bridge as well, c.1300 BC (though the Flag Fen Wikipedia page has more photos and information than that linked English Heritage page). There's also a series of maybe six bridges at Eton in Buckinghamshire, dating from c.1500 to c.300 BC, although information on these online is a little scant - there's a handy summary as a two-page MS Word document here (be aware that this link is a direct download of the Word file, however, not a webpage as such).

A search will bring up more websites for all (or try a blanket "Bronze Age bridges" search). Beware of the stone clapper bridges however, often claimed as distantly prehistoric, although most seem traceable back no further than medieval times at the earliest.

[Erpingham]

Bridge repair was one of the civic duties of free men under the Anglo-Saxon kings (along with military duties).  I'd assume these would be wooden bridges.  Bridge building is mentioned on several Viking runestones and piles from a Viking bridge (or causeway) were included in the Viking exhibition at the British Museum this year.

On ancient stone bridges, in various parts of the UK you get clapstone bridges made with big stone slabs.  Some hold these to be very ancient but their apparent megalithic characteristics are more about the local geology and the availability of big stone slabs.  So, they are another possible bridge type in the right place.

[Imperial Dave]

As mentioned above, ferries also part if the equation. There was a ferry across the Severn estuary in the Roman period probably preceded by one in the Iron Age. The terminus for each crossing point had a Roman road servicing it. In fact the ferry survived into modern times only disappearing in the 1960s