The use of dressed stone rather than gravel as a surface dressing was also occasionally held to be a sign against the causeway being of Roman construction: the majority of Roman roads that were finished with a material other than simple packed earth were dressed in either packed gravel or pebbles.ϊ There are other examples of Roman roads paved with stone blocks, including the 11 miles section of the Via Appia—the oldest major Roman route in Italy—near Albano.