One of the shoes recently found in the Fort Roman in Magna
Recently, wearing a fashionable sandals again – as it had been in a few decades of the twentieth century. But in reality, this trend has existed since the time of the Roman Empire.
Recent excavations at the Magna Roman Fort, near the Wall of Adriano in Northumberland, northeast of England, discovered the.
These findings provided us with an excellent record of the shoes of soldiers and civilians who lived around them.
The discovery of extraordinarily large leather shoes left the archaeologists “perplexed.” However, of those whose size can be determined, only 0.4% are large.
After all, those slippers may not necessarily mean that the Romans had their feet, but They used sandals with socks.
“Now” fashion that is not from now
In fact, the shoe collection found raises an immediate and obvious question: why did people in the magna have such big shoes?
The possible answers to this question raise more questions and bring up a central component of archaeological investigation.
Emma Framesenior archaeologist of Magna’s excavations, suggests: “We have to assume that it has something to do with the fact that people who lived here have larger feet, be potentially higher, but we don’t know.”
This idea of larger feet, larger people makes sense.
However, it may also be worth considering other ideas.
For example, the fact that the slippers are large may only indicate that they are intended to allow the use of Extra layers of filling or several pairs of socks.
This theory gains strength due to a letter, preserved in conditions similar to those of the vindolanda shoes, which refers to a offer of socks and underpants that was sent to someone from that place – Presumably to keep him hot during cold winter nights.
We also know, based on other evidence, that the Syrian archers were one of the units parked in Magna. These men would not be used to the northern cold climate of England.
Can these big shoes be an attempt to deal with the bitter shock of a British winter?
Or, instead, can these shoes have a medical purpose, perhaps, to allow people with swollen feet or people who use medical likes can wear shoes?
Or, finally, it would be Just a fashion issue?
These are some hypotheses presented by the teacher of Roman material culture and late antiquity, University of Reading, Timerin an article, which could explain the extragrade shoes based on other evidence other than the size of the Romans.
