Giant Roman shoes found at Hadrian’s Wall raise questions about ancient soldiers

It has led researchers to question who wore these giant shoes and whether unusually tall individuals were stationed at the site.

“When we found the first large shoe, we thought maybe it was stuffed for warmth or worn with thick socks,” CNN reported quoting Rachel Frame, the lead archaeologist on the project. “But then we found more, in different styles. It seems they really did belong to people with very large feet.”

Who might have worn the giant shoes?

Magna Fort was built around AD 85 and housed different Roman troops and their families over the years, as archaeologists suspect.

Inscriptions on the fort’s walls mention soldiers from places such as present-day Syria, Croatia, Serbia and the Netherlands, even though the length of their stay remains unknown.

According to Frame, as new groups moved in, they would build over the older structures, leaving behind items like shoes, clothing and tools. Many belongings were left in ditches or buried in the walls during rebuilding.

“Often, when troops left for other regions, they abandoned things in a hurry,” Frame told CNN. “Those objects then got sealed into the soil by later construction.”

While most Roman shoes found in the area are much smaller, that is, closer to UK men’s size 8, these larger ones suggests at least some soldiers may have been taller than average.

“Ancient Roman manuals say ideal soldiers were about 5 feet 8 or 9,” said Rob Collins, a professor at Newcastle University, speaking to CNN. “But the soldiers stationed around Hadrian’s Wall came from all around the far-reaching empire, bringing a wide diversity of physical traits to their settlements,” Collins added.

Digging deeper into the past

Researchers hope to learn more about the shoe owners by studying wear patterns or foot impressions left in the shoes, CNN noted. However, connecting the shoes to specific individuals may be difficult as Romans in the area often cremated their dead, leaving little in the way of bones or physical remains.

Only a few fragile bones have been recovered at Magna so far, which are too soft and crumbly to provide any clarity. Still, Frame said pottery and other artifacts at the site might help piece together timelines of the inhabitants.

Climate affecting preservation

The leather soles have survived for nearly 2,000 years due to the low-oxygen condition of the soil, however, Frame warned that changing weather patterns are now putting such findings at risk.

“The more our climate changes, the more we get heat waves and droughts, or months’ worth of rain in one weekend type (of) scenarios, the more that influences the underground soil conditions and introduces more oxygen into these environments,” Frame explained.

The Magna shoes are in worse condition than those found at nearby Vindolanda Fort decades ago, likely due to these climate shifts.

“… for me, archaeology is about the story of everybody else … the stories of the people whose lives weren’t written down, who weren’t kings or emperors or famous heroes,” she said. “These personal objects really put the real human people back into the picture.”

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