<P> The peninsula of Anatolia lay on the commercial land routes to Europe from Asia as well as the sea route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea . Records from the 19th century BCE attest to the existence of an Assyrian merchant colony at Kanesh in Cappadocia (now in modern Turkey). Trading networks of the Old World included the Grand Trunk Road of India and the Incense Road of Arabia . A transportation network consisting of hard - surfaced highways, using concrete made from volcanic ash and lime, was built by the Romans as early as 312 BCE, during the times of the Censor Appius Claudius Caecus . Parts of the Mediterranean world, Roman Britain, Tigris - Euphrates river system and North Africa fell under the reach of this network at some point of their history . </P> <P> According to Robert Allen Denemark (2000): </P> <P> "The spread of urban trading networks, and their extension along the Persian Gulf and eastern Mediterranean, created a complex molecular structure of regional foci so that as well as the zonation of core and periphery (originally created around Mesopotamia) there was a series of interacting civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley; then also Syria, central Anatolia (Hittites) and the Aegean (Minoans and Mycenaeans). Beyond this was a margin which included not only temperate areas such as Europe, but the dry steppe corridor of central Asia . This was truly a world system, even though it occupied only a restricted portion of the western Old World . Whilst each civilization emphasized its ideological autonomy, all were identifiably part of a common world of interacting components ." </P> <P> These routes--spreading religion, trade and technology--have historically been vital to the growth of urban civilization . The extent of development of cities, and the level of their integration into a larger world system, has often been attributed to their position in various active transport networks . </P>

For what purpose the routes of contact were used