BOY’S FOOTPRINT IS 1600 YEARS OLD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17837, 4 May 1926, Page 3

BOY’S FOOTPRINT IS 1600 YEARS OLD.

CAERLEON EXCAVATIONS REVEAL PRIZED TROPHY. (Special to the "Star.”) LONDON, March 23. The chief finds which have been made so far during the ongoing excavations at Caerleon are of odd bits of pottery, broken fragments of red earthenware jars and cups, together with a few coins. The excavators’ object is principally to reveal how the men in this department of the Second Legion lived and “carried on,” much of which is to be learnt through odd fragments of their china and the pennies from their pockets.

FOOTPRINT IN A TILE. One of the most prized trophies ever won from the soil at Caerleon—it is now in the National Museum of Wales at Cardiff—was .a tile. In it is sunk with wonderful clearness the footprint of a boy, and over this the trade-mark, as it were, of the Second Legion, which was stamped on all tiles, which the Legion itself made. The boot or sandal worn by the boy curves right round just like the latest design in “comfort wear” for children of which modern bootmakers are proudest. The heel is worn as a boy’s heel might be inclined to be, and the rows of hobnails (for the upkeep of which in their footwear the legionaries had an allowance) stand out with the utmost distinctness. More than this: just at the swell of the foot is the imprint of a dog’s paw, and another, more faint, on the other side of the foot. The whole scene when this imprint was made can be so well visualised: some sort of drummer-boy of the Legion, given the task of stamping the tiles, unable to resist the pleasure of making a neat pattern of his foot in the soft tile, and placing the label "LEG. 11. AUG.” exactly where there was room for it, at the instep, where it would cover none of the broguemarks. You can see the dog, one of the regimental dogs, going round with him, greatly excited with his doings, and allowed to stand for a joke on the tile beside him, but carefully shooed off the footprint.

STORY OF THE PAST. It is articles of this sort, rich in their continuity of human nature, that are being discovered in Caerleon. Not all as perfect, of course, though when the Amphitheatre is opened who knows what may not be found? But the least fragment of pottery helps on the homely story of the past. The workers at Caerleon out of each stratum of the soil as it is exposed take every stray coin or bit of earthenware. All manner of momentous facts await proving from these lost coins and broken cups. The Second Legion is believed to have had its depot there from A.D. 50 to 400, in round figures, but there is a large margin of uncertainty for the earlier and the later years, and no continuous record for the intervening ones. In the amphitheatre there must have been a good deal of settling up of bets, as this or that gladiator triumphed or fell, and vessels holding refreshments must have been numerous. Will any of those bettors’ coins or those drinkers' winecups be found and reveal gaps of hidden history ? The chance is always there, and it is a thrilling one.