‘Exceptionally large’ shoe among more than 30 found preserved at Roman fort

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Romans began their conquest of Britain.

The time between when Roman boats landed on British shores in 43 A.D. to the establishment of their empire’s northern border was less than a century, and by 122 A.D. Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of a wall across modern-day England.

Today, Hadrian’s Wall spans 73 miles and teaches archaeologists and historians about the daily lives of soldiers, forts and trade centers of Roman-era Britain.

One of these sites is Magna Fort, located along one of the most complete sections of the famed wall — and archaeologists have just made a “large” discovery.

Excavations of the northern defensive ditches of Magna Fort have revealed 32 shoes buried in the “semi-anaerobic low oxygen deposits,” according to a July 2 news release from the Vindolanda Charitable Trust, which is in charge of the five-year project.

The shoes were abnormally sized, including one “exceptionally large” shoe first reported in the Magna Dig Diary in May, according to the release.

The shoe is 12.6 inches long, roughly a UK size 13/14 or US size 15/16, archaeologists said.

“As news spread of this giant single shoe, the team continued to discover more ancient shoes, several more of them being of an exceptional size,” according to the release. “Eight shoes from Magna are now recorded as (11.8 inches) or over in length and this includes one which holes the current record for being the Trust’s largest shoe at (12.8 inches) long.”

The shoes found at another Hadrian’s Wall fort, Vinvolanda, have very few shoes that large, but one-fourth of the shoes found at Magna are classed as “xx-large,” archaeologists 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,” Elizabeth Greene, shoe specialist and associate professor at the University of Western Ontario, said in the release.

When the shoes go through the conservation process, like those at Vindolanda have, they have the possibility of shrinking up to 0.4 inches, but even with that shrinkage the Magna shoes would still be larger, Greene said.

The other 75% of shoes found at Magna ranged in size, including shoes small enough to fit children, according to the trust.

“Organic finds like this are some of the most precious to come from our sites,” senior archaeologist for the Magna Project, Rachel Frame, said in the release, but officials are worried about how climate change will impact the well-preserved organic material yet to be found.

Magna Fort is in Brampton, in northern England, just south of Scotland.

Irene Wright

McClatchy DC

Irene Wright is a McClatchy Real-Time reporter. She earned a B.A. in ecology and an M.A. in health and medical journalism from the University of Georgia and is now based in Atlanta. Irene previously worked as a business reporter at The Dallas Morning News.