"Unusually large" 2,000-year-old shoes unearthed at a Roman site in northern England.

A stash of "unusually large" 2,000-year-old shoes dug up at a Roman site in northern England has left archaeologists searching for an explanation, they told AFP on Thursday.

Eight large shoes, including one measuring nearly 13 inches long — equivalent to size 49 in Europe and size 15 in the U.S. — have been found by archaeologists from the Vindolanda Charity Trust in recent months.

The trust was established in 1970 to excavate, conserve and share Roman remains at Vindolanda and Carvoran, both part of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site in northern England.

The shoes were discovered in a defensive ditch, often used by Romans as a rubbish dump, at the Magna Roman Fort in Northumberland.

Only a tiny fraction of shoes in Vindolanda's vast existing collection are of a similar size, whereas around a quarter of those from the Magna site are in this size range, according to Rachel Frame, a senior archaeologist on the project.

Source: www.cbsnews.com

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