Roman Child's Footprints Found

[Melvadius]

Sky News are carrying what they claim as an exclusive story about the discovery of a Roman period child's footprints during excavations in 2010 during a dig at Healam Bridge, North Yorkshire. Although it is also being carried by World News Media here which also carries links to the Highways Agency Flickr site with some additional general images from the excavations.

 

Unfortunately the footprints mentioned in both stories proved to be real ephemera as they could only be recorded on film.

 

Two thousand-year-old footprints left by a Roman child playing by the side of a road have been found in North Yorkshire.

 

Archaeologists made the remarkable discovery while excavating a muddy area of a former Roman settlement on the A1 near Leeming.

 

Helen Maclean of archaeology firm AECOM described the find as very rare.

 

"I'm not aware of many other footprints being found, everybody was quite amazed by it," she said.

 

...continued

 

The main excavations were reported in August 2010 including this article in the Mail Online and a photostrip the BBC here

[Viggen]

Great find, as a non archaeologist, this probably is a stupid question, but how do we know these are foot prints from roman times,and not (for argument sakes) from 600AD?

 

cheers

viggen

[Klingan]

Great find, as a non archaeologist, this probably is a stupid question, but how do we know these are foot prints from roman times,and not (for argument sakes) from 600AD?

 

Most certainly the stratigraphical context, that's how almost all find that can't really give you any exact (or even inexact) datable information is placed in more or less certain time frame.

[Melvadius]

Just to expand slightly on Klingan's answer generally the composition of the ground being excavated will vary slightly eg with more or less sand or other inclusions in it such as clay. Where there is a noticable variation it is generally recorded as a new 'context'.

 

There may be other variations such as distinctive pieces of pottery or other artefacts such as coins or brooches which can be used to give an approximate date for each context - the terminus post quem (date the layer can be no earlier than).

 

When excavating we build up the stratigraphic relationship by numbering each context and then working out their relationship - in the UK usually using a visual representation based on a Harris Matrix which depending on the area excavated or as a factor of the quantity of finds can get increasingly complex such as in this example.

 

Contexts which can be determined as lying immediately on top of each other should be older than the layer/ context below while those which cut into a lower context would indicate a later feature such as a pit which has been dug and then refilled.

 

Presumably in the case above the excavators found the footprints in close association with material which could be dated to the Roman period therefore assume it to be most likely to be Roman rather than later or earlier.

[Melvadius]

Past Horizons now have a bit more on this discovery al;though retreading much of what has been pronted elsewhere it does include several of the photographs from Flickr as part of their main report on the associated fort here

 

The excavation of a Roman fort at Healam Bridge and the attached industrial zone produced some remarkable discoveries, including the footprints of a child playing alongside the road that led into the fortress.

 

Archaeologists made the remarkable discovery while excavating an area beside the remains of a small stream that ran behind a former RomanVicus settlement. This and other finds were made during the upgrade of the A1 to a three-lane motorway between Dishforth and Leeming in North Yorkshire.

 

Helen Maclean of AECOM described the find as very rare and commented that,