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→Early Development of Roads
==Early Development of Roads==
Paths used by travelers likely developed in response to physical or geographic obstacles that made movement slow or difficult if one did not use a given road. However, with the innovation of agriculture spread, roads in the countryside began to be placed in lands between fields. In other words, roads soon were created to control traffic between settlements and to access regions around settlements. Roads became ways in which people could be controlled so that their movements would not disrupt agricultural activity or even private property, as the concept of property itself began to create the idea that roads were common space that helped avoid and access private areas. With agricultural cycles in the Neolithic becoming more common and fixed on the landscape, roads became more fixed features since they proved to be expected ways that one can move without disrupting agricultural activities. Regions that developed pastoral-based economies, on the other had, may have not developed fixed roads, as movement did not need to be regulated or confined to specific spaces.
Roads developed similar in towns and cities. As private areas became established, the roads were utilized as a means to access or avoid private regions in cities all together. At first, roads were not paved, but by the 4th millennium BCE, paving was already developing in the Indus region using baked bricks. Concepts of lane use likely developed as wheeled and human traffic took shape by the 4th millennium BCE if not earlier. Donkeys and onager were likely the most common form of animal in early urban streets to be used as transport. The horse, domesticated in Central Asia, likely did not become prominent on urban streets until the 2nd millennium BCE.
