Nearby findings and burial sites from the Neolithic and circular ramparts from the Iron Age indicate that the historic road Birkenhainer Straße or at least an assortment of its paths was used that long ago.

[1][2][3][4]: 84 The Birkenhainer Straße was the subject of a symposium in 2014 organized by the Archäologisches Spessartprojekt [de] which since 2012 has also conducted excavations at some points along the route.

[5] The name Birkenhainer Straße likely derives from a copse of birch trees that stood near the village of Geiselbach, where several branches of the road meet to continue on together.

At the same time, the route was much shorter than following the valley of the Main river in its great loop south to Wertheim and Miltenberg and back up to Aschaffenburg and Hanau.

[2][6]: 36–37 The trail starts at the Bundesstraße 8 not far from the Kleinkastell Neuwirtshaus [de], the remains of a small Roman fortification on the Limes Germanicus, located in the forests near Hanau.

It then heads east to the boundary between the states of Hesse and Bavaria and largely follows it past Rodenbach, near the Hof Trages [de] and Freigericht before leaving the borderline to continue eastward.