Mystery Unveiled: Enormous 2,000-Year-Old Roman Shoe Discovered at England’s Ancient Fort—What Was It Used For?
Indeed, Magna Fort has a long and fascinating history that began some 2,000 years ago with the construction of Hadrian’s Wall.
The Long Roman History Of Magna Fort
Vindolanda TrustA depiction of Magna, an ancient fort set along Hadrian’s Wall in Roman England.
Magna, also known as Carvoran, is a fort located near Hadrian’s Wall, which was constructed by Emperor Hadrian in 122 C.E. to secure the Roman Empire’s northern border.
Positioned at the junction of two major Roman roads, the Maiden Way and the Stanegate, ancient Romans at Magna would have had a commanding view of their surroundings. They also went to great measures to defend the fort, as recent excavations have revealed.
Archaeologists have been hard at work excavating defensive ditches, banks, and ramparts outside of the fort’s northern wall. Some of the ditches they’re investigating are “ankle breaker” ditches. These were narrow, deep ditches, hidden with water, where enemy soldiers would trip and “break” their ankles.
Vindolanda TrustThough little of the ancient Roman fort remains, excavations have already turned up some exciting finds.
That said, much of what once existed at Magda was sadly destroyed.
“The site of the fort, and its civilian settlement, is now little more than a series of fields with pronounced humps and bumps, the remnants of the rampart behind the fort walls together with the remains of an exposed angle turret,” states the fort’s website. “The final fort at the site was subjected to a huge amount of archaeological harm, damage from farmers trying to improve the land and road builders looking for stone for the military way. Some of the artefacts found during this time were rescued by antiquarians and therefore survive to this day [while] others are lost to us forever.”
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