Archaeologists have discovered a nail-reinforced shoe sole from Roman times in Manching, Upper Bavaria. As a spokeswoman for the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation explained on Tuesday, traces of a civilian settlement around a Roman auxiliary fort dating from between 60 and 130 AD were excavated in the Manching district of Oberstimm in 2022. The recovered pieces were then brought to the State Office’s restoration workshops.
Only a few weeks ago, X-ray examination of the finds revealed that a bent, heavily corroded piece of metal contained a rare sole with nails, the spokeswoman explained. At first, the researchers suspected that the remains of a sickle were hidden in the piece of metal.
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“Surprise finds like the shoe sole from Oberstimm show again and again that valuable information is collected even after archaeological excavations have been completed,” said Bavaria’s General Conservator Mathias Pfeil. The archaeologists assume that the shoe was worn by an adult.
The iron nails were necessary to reinforce and fix the leather sole. Like modern studs, they provided stability and surefootedness when running over rough terrain. “So-called caligae were mainly worn by Roman soldiers during the Roman imperial period,” said Amira Adaileh, a consultant at the state office.
Manching is particularly known for the Oppidum of Manching, a large Celtic city, one of the most outstanding archaeological sites in Bavaria. However, the Romans were also present in the area not far from today’s city of Ingolstadt around two thousand years ago.