Wednesday, August 15, 2007

FOOTPRINT AS ARTIFACT:
Following the footsteps of a Roman soldier
By Ofri Ilani (Haaretz)

Archaeologists have discovered a footprint made by the sandal of a Roman soldier - one of the few such finds in the world - in a wall surrounding the Hellenistic-Roman city of Sussita, east of Lake Kinneret.

The discovery of the print made by a hobnailed sandal, the kind used by the Roman legions during the time when Rome ruled the region, led to the presumption that legionnaires or former legionnaires participated in the construction of walls such as the one in which the footprint was found.

[...]
City-destroying earthquakes are hard on the inhabitants, but they're a boon to archaeologists, because things like this get preserved in the rubble.