Saed News: Archaeologists excavating in Germany have discovered the remains of a Roman soldier's shoe dating back approximately two thousand years.
According to the Historical Service of Saed News, archaeologists excavating near a playground close to the former Roman military and civilian colony of Aliso discovered the 2,000-year-old “caliga” shoe of a lost soldier in an ancient garbage pit.
The site where the shoe remains were found had been identified in 2010. However, the recent discovery astonished the excavators because such shoes are rarely found in Germany. A similar shoe had also been discovered in Germany last June.
Archaeologists were asked to begin excavation before a fiber optic installation project in the area. Given the conditions of the site, experts expected to find some historical artifacts. According to a press release issued this week, the excavators first found several pits, an old wooden wall, and two pits that had once been used as ovens for baking bread for the inhabitants, as well as a piece of glass game. They then discovered two garbage pits.
These types of Roman garbage pits are abundant throughout the region. According to archaeologists, this is not the first time something has been found in a Roman garbage pit. However, waste from that historical period is of great value to today’s archaeologists.
Soldiers wore these well-known shoes called “caliga” to pass through marshy areas. These shoes were typically made of leather. Their soles consisted of handmade nails and three layers of hammered animal hides forming the sole, with nails that had sharp tips protruding from the sole acting like spikes.
Although the leather parts of the recently discovered caliga have long since decomposed in the soil, archaeologists noticed the pattern formed by 60 nails and thereby identified the object.
