The town planning of the earlier Bosra is not yet precisely known, even though some Bronze Age structures (W. and S.-W. city-wall) and artefacts have been recently found in the western part and in the center of the Graeco-Roman city. Like a hinge, the Nabataean arch complex links the main E.-W. street with the Ist century AD eastern nabataean district, of which the cross-ruled orientation is different. In the main streets of the Roman city center, the building of the columnaded porticoes is now accurately dated in the severan period by inscriptions. The numerous offi cial inscriptions - some of them in Latin - found in the south-north street from the main E.-W. street to the Roman camp obviously demonstrate the political meaning of this urban axis. During the IVth and Vth centuries a large renovation of the porticoes and neighbouring buildings has been carried out. The transformation of the street porticoes into separate shops - as in
modern souqs - has probably begun in the late omeyyad period. This architectural evolution has emphasized the permanent economic function of these Roman urban spaces, which were still in use when European travellers visited these cities