| Title | Researchers Unearth Remarkable Horse 'Shoes' | |
| Date | Thursday August 16 2018, @11:34AM | |
| Author | martyb | |
| Topic | ||
| from the try-getting-a-'leaner'-with-one-of-those dept. | ||
Alex Meyer continues to be in awe of the treasure trove that is Vindolanda.
For years, the former Roman auxiliary fort, located just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, has yielded a number of finds unique to the site and to the former empire. To date, excavations have yielded well-preserved artefacts such as ink tablets, shoes, combs, swords and textiles.
Meyer, a Roman historian and Classical Studies professor at Western, was recently part of a team that unearthed four early Roman hipposandals – shoes worn by horses – at Vindolanda.
"The most interesting thing about this is we found all four of the hipposandals. It's rare and remarkable to find one, but to find all four, deposited like this, is really cool. I've seen one other set of four in all my days," Meyer said.
[...] Vindolanda, a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, which housed some of the most famous documents of the Roman world, has been a location of study for Classical Studies students since 2012, when Western's Field School at Vindolanda was developed by professors Meyer and Elizabeth Greene, a Roman archeologist. Over the years, the pair has acted as supervisors for excavations and volunteer programs at the fort. The school provides training in field excavation, archaeology and history of Roman Britain for students through excavations and the first-hand study of Roman artefacts unearthed at the site.
It is believed that Romans did not use actual horseshoes, which are nailed into the hoof of the horse, Meyer explained. The unearthed hipposandals are more like actual shoes, resembling "soup ladles," which would wrap around the sole of a horse's foot.
[...] "This shows that the use of hipposandals is not just isolated to rocky terrain in the mountains where horses' feet would have to be protected, but in Vindolanda, where there is little rock and lots of grass fields, there is still a use for hipposandals."
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