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During the latest digging season at Magna Roman Fort, a number of unusually large shoes were discovered, larger even than any of the approximately 5,000 ancient shoes that have been uncovered at nearby Vindolanda.
It is currently the third season of excavations at Magna – an auxiliary fort on Hadrian’s Wall – which is run by the Vindolanda Trust with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (see CA 402). The site lies approximately 6 miles east of Vindolanda, and a stone’s throw from Milecastle 46, the excavation of which is also part of a five-year project focused on this site.
This year, the team have been excavating the northern area of the fort. It appears that the walls here were extensively robbed out over centuries by farmers looking for building material, leaving only a band of mortar and rubble to show where they lay. The defensive ditches in front of the wall proved fruitful, however. As the team dug down deeper, reaching semi-anaerobic (low oxygen) deposits, they began to find organic material including a number of leather shoes. While some of these were in poor condition and for others only the sole remained, a few retained their uppers and, in one case, even decorative stamping could be seen.
In all, 34 shoes have been recovered from the ditches so far and, unusually, seven were found to measure 30cm (11.8in) or more in length. The longest measures 32.6cm (12.8in, equivalent to a UK size 13/14), and is currently the largest shoe ever recorded by the Vindolanda Trust (above). This is in sharp contrast to the average shoe size found at Vindolanda, where only 0.4% of shoes measured more than 30cm, with the average being between 24cm and 26cm (between 9.4in and 10.2in) in length.
Dr Elizabeth Greene, Associate Professor at the University of Western Ontario and Vindolanda’s shoe specialist, commented: ‘I think there is something very different going on here at Magna. Even from this small sample uncovered, it is clear that these shoes are much larger on average than most of the Vindolanda collection. Although we are comparing this new Magna collection, which has not yet gone through the conservation process, with the Vindolanda shoes that have, even taking into account a maximum shrinkage of up to 1cm/10mm, it still means these shoes are very large indeed.’
Text: Kathryn Krakowka / Image: Vindolanda Trust
