• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Why Are So Many Enormous Roman Shoes Being Discovered At Hadrian’s Wall?

July 5, 2025 by Deborah Bloomfield

We often assume our ancestors were smaller than us – and usually, it’s true. Out on the northern fringes of the Roman Empire, however, there appears to have been a small population of giants standing guard some 2,000 years ago – at least, if their shoes are anything to go by.

“I think there is something very different going on here at Magna,” said Elizabeth Greene, Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Western Ontario and shoe specialist at the Vindolanda Charitable Trust, in a statement this week. “Even from this small sample uncovered it is clear that these shoes are much larger on average than most of the Vindolanda collection.”

Vindolanda may not be a name you’re familiar with, but you’ll probably have heard of the place it’s found: it’s a fort on Hadrian’s Wall, in the north of England, near what was once the border between Roman Britannia and the wild and untamed Caledonia.

Today, the Wall lies entirely in England – but it still holds a wealth of archaeological treasure hailing from the Roman frontierspeople who once lived there. A few years ago, for example, excavators uncovered a 1,700-year-old dick pic – carved apparently in anger over some guy named Secundinus. This year, however, appears to be the year of the shoe: last month, the first few giant shoes were discovered, and now, the collection of ancient footwear has exploded.

In total, something like 5,000 leather shoes have been uncovered – men’s, women’s, babies’; soldiers’ and civilians’; from summer sandals to sturdy boots. The newest collection of finds totals 32 shoes – and they certainly stick out from the rest. Kind of literally, actually: eight shoes have been found with soles measuring longer than 30 centimeters (12 inches), roughly a UK men’s size 12 or US 13. The record-holding largest one in the collection measures 32.6 cm (12.8 inches) – that’s a UK size 16, and a US men’s 17.

A shoe sole next to a 30 centimeter ruler . It is bigger than the ruler.

A big shoe.

Image courtesy of Vindolanda Charitable Trust

Those are some big-ass feet. “Although we are comparing this new Magna collection, which has not yet gone through the conservation process, with the Vindolanda shoes that have,” Greene said, “even taking into account a maximum shrinkage of up to 1cm/10mm, it still means these shoes are very large indeed.”

It’s a fun and evocative glimpse into the past – but archaeologists warn we shouldn’t take such turnups for granted. “Organic finds like this are some of the most precious to come from our sites, which capture the imagination of visitors and volunteers alike,” said Rachel Frame, Senior Archaeologist at the Magna Project, the five-year archeological project through which this excavation was run. “But they are also the most at risk from our changing climate.” 

The quality of the shoes discovered at Vindolanda is owed in a large part to the semi-anaerobic conditions of the waterlogged mud in the area. It’s an extremely fragile ecosystem, and intense heat or rainfall – both of which are becoming more frequent, strong, and overall likely to occur thanks to climate change – could disrupt it significantly.

These thousands of shoes – small and extra-extra-large alike – “really [show] us what is at risk if climate change continues to rob us of such vital information,” said Andrew Birley, the Trust’s CEO and Director of Excavations. “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,” Birley added. “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.”

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Audi launches its newest EV, the 2022 Q4 e-tron SUV
  2. Dinosaur Prints Found Under Restaurant Table Confirmed As 100 Million Years Old
  3. Archax: Japanese Engineers Make Transformer Robot That Actually Works
  4. How Do We Know There Is Anything Beyond The Observable Universe?

Source Link: Why Are So Many Enormous Roman Shoes Being Discovered At Hadrian's Wall?

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Psychologists Demonstrate Illusion That Could Be Screwing Up Our Perception Of Time
  • Why Are So Many Enormous Roman Shoes Being Discovered At Hadrian’s Wall?
  • Scientists Think They’ve Pinpointed Structural Differences In Psychopaths’ Brains
  • We’ve Found Our Third-Ever Interstellar Visitor, Orcas Filmed Kissing (With Tongues) In The Wild, And Much More This Week
  • The “Eyes Of Clavius” Will Be Visible On The Moon Today, Thanks To Clair-Obscur Effect
  • Shockingly High Microplastic Levels Found On Remote Mediterranean Coral Reef Island
  • Interstellar Object, Cheesy Nightmares, And Smooching Orcas
  • World’s Largest Martian Meteorite Up For Auction Could Reach Whopping $2-4 Million
  • Kimalu The Beluga Whale Undergoes Pioneering Surgery And Becomes First Beluga To Survive General Aesthetic
  • The 1986 Soviet Space Mission That’s Never Been Repeated: Mir To Salyut And Back Again
  • Grisly Incident In Yellowstone National Park Shows Just How Dangerous This Vibrant Wilderness Can Be
  • Out Of All Greenhouse Gas Emitters On Earth, One US Organization Takes The Biscuit
  • Overly Ambitious Adder Attempts To Eat Hare 10 Times Its Mass In Gnarly Video
  • How Fast Does A Spacecraft Need To Go To Escape The Solar System?
  • President Trump’s Cuts To USAID Could Result In A “Staggering” 14 Million Avoidable Deaths By 2030
  • Dzo: Hybrids Beasts That Are Perfectly Crafted For Life On Earth’s Highest Mountains
  • “Rarest Event Ever” Had A Half-Life 1 Trillion Times Longer Than The Age Of The Universe – How Did We See It?
  • Meet The Bille, A Self-Righting Tetrahedron That Nobody Was Sure Could Exist
  • Neurogenesis Confirmed: Adult Brains Really Do Make New Hippocampal Neurons
  • RFK Jr Suggested Letting Bird Flu Run Through Farms – Experts Still Think It’s A Bad Idea
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version