A stash of huge Roman shoes has been found at the ruins of a fort on Hadrian’s Wall. Archaeologists uncovered 32 pieces of Roman footwear at Magna Fort near Greenhead, between Haydon Bridge and Brampton.
A quarter (eight) of the shoes are over 30cm, or a men’s 12.5 shoe. This makes them much larger than the average men’s shoe size today, which is 9. The largest shoe found was 32.6cm, equivalent to a men’s size 14. In comparison, only 0.4% of shoes uncovered at nearby Vindolanda, which includes work boots, sandals and baby shoes, are in the same category, with the average shoe size being 25cm in length. Rachel Frame, a senior archaeologist leading the excavation, said: “When the first large shoe started to come out of the ground, we were looking for many explanations, like maybe it’s their winter shoes, or people were stuffing them, wearing extra socks. But as we found more of them and different styles, it does seem to be that these were just people with really large feet.”
Dr Elizabeth Greene, Associate Professor at the University of Western Ontario and Vindolanda’s shoe specialist, has seen and measured every shoe in the collection from the Vindolanda Charitable Trust.
She said: “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”.
Dr Greene noted that “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.”
Dr Andrew Birley, the Trust’s CEO and Director of Excavations, added: “This really shows us what is at risk if climate change continues to rob us of such vital information.
“It reminds us that not every population was the same, that wide variations between the regiments and people who served along Hadrian’s Wall, could be cultural and physical. Without artefacts like these wonderful shoes from Magna and Vindolanda, it would be almost impossible to know information like this.
“We can only celebrate and marvel at the diversity and differences of these people if we can still see them in the archaeological data we gather today”.
