ABSTRACT
This chapter describes early pavements in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete and Greece. The oldest existing pavement dates from about 2500 BC when Egypt’s Old Kingdom was actively involved in building pyramids and temples. The earliest “urban” pavements that have survived are monumental plazas and processional ways. Many of the best-known ceremonial pavements were built by Mesopotamian monarchs in the delta land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers – the “fertile crescent”. In the absence of suitable stone, early pavements in Mesopotamia predominantly used bricks made locally from sun-dried mud, burnt bricks made by pressing clay and then heating the brick in an oil-fired kiln, and imported slabs split from layered limestone. They were sometimes bonded together using the bitumen that occurred naturally in the region and was widely used for water-proofing. The best-known Processional Way was built in about 600 BC by Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. The earliest paved street is thought to have been constructed by the Hittites in Boğazkale in central Turkey in about 1200 BC. The Minoan civilisation in Crete from about 2600 BC to 1100 BC developed relatively sophisticated road-building methods which probably influenced later Etruscan and then Roman road builders. Roads dating from 2000 BC have been found in swamps throughout Europe. However, no major surficial remnants have been found of Celtic roads.
