Iron League-Stone of the Northern Highway

Physical Details

Type: architecture
Material: volcanic basalt, iron plate, lead inlay
Era: 750 BCE
Condition: Good condition
Dimensions: 120cm H × 40cm W × 40cm D
Weight: 98000g
Catalog #: APO-2026-00015

notableAPO-2026-00015

Iron League-Stone of the Northern Highway

The Ascendancy did not merely conquer — they connected. Their highway system, marked by stones like this one, allowed orders from the Ash-King's citadel to reach the farthest province within three days. Iron plates could be updated as borders shifted; the stone endured.

Inscription

Ferkum vikus strukat legus fortum. Krexus deviktat noxus. Serat kremat belum et honorus markat.

/feɾkum vikus stɾukat legus foɾtum noksus deviktat kɾeksus seɾat kɾemat belum et honoɾus maɾkat/

Translation

“The iron road the strong legion builds. The king conquers darkness. Serath burns war, and honor marches.”

Interlinear Analysis(click to expand)

Form	Gloss	POS
ferkum	iron-ATR	adjective
vikus	road-NOM	noun
strukat	build-3SG.PRES	verb
legus	legion-NOM	noun
fortum	strong-ATR	adjective
krexus	king-NOM	noun
deviktat	conquer-3SG.PRES	verb
noxus	darkness-NOM	noun
serat	volcano/god-NOM	noun
kremat	burn-3SG.PRES	verb
belum	war-ACC	noun
et	and-CONJ	conjunction
honorus	honor-NOM	noun
markat	march-3SG.PRES	verb

Script: left-to-right

Description

A dressed basalt pillar with an iron plate bolted to one face, bearing distance markers to three provincial capitals in the Ascendancy alphabetic script. The top is carved into the single-flame symbol. Lead-inlaid directional arrows point along the road axis. The base shows socket holes where the stone was anchored into a prepared road foundation. One of a network of league-stones placed at regular intervals along the Ascendancy highway system.

Scholarly Analysis(click to expand)

The iron plate is attached with bolts threaded into lead-filled sockets — an engineering technique not seen elsewhere in the basin until centuries later. Professor Asante identifies this as evidence of modular infrastructure design: the stone is permanent, the iron plate replaceable. The three distances correspond to known Ascendancy provincial capitals, and triangulation from multiple recovered league-stones has allowed archaeologists to reconstruct 340km of the Northern Highway route. The volcanic basalt was quarried from Mount Serath's lower slopes.

Provenance(click to expand)

discoverer: Professor Kwame Asante
discovery date: 2024-09-30
condition notes: Iron plate heavily oxidized but legible under X-ray. Basalt pillar intact. Lead inlay partially degraded. Base socket holes preserve original mortar.
excavation team: Royal Archaeological Society Field Team
discovery location: Road Station 12, Northern Highway, in situ