'The Pompeii of the North': London's most important ever archaeological dig

Daily Mail ^ | April 19, 2013 | LEON WATSON

[NYer]

Thousands of Roman artefacts have been unearthed in an archaeological dig hailed as 'the most important excavation ever held in London'.

Archaeologists have found coins, pottery, shoes, lucky charms and an amber Gladiator amulet which date back almost 2,000 years.

Experts leading the excavation have also uncovered wooden structures from the 40s AD around 40ft beneath the ground.

The site is just yards from the River Thames and alongside a huge building project for new offices on Queen Victoria Street in the heart of London's financial district.

he Bloomberg Place construction site

Archaeologists work to unearth Roman artifacts.

The discoveries have been so well preserved in the muddy waters of the lost Walbrook River that archaeologists have nicknamed the site 'the Pompeii of the North'.

Sadie Watson, the site director from the Museum of London Archaeology, said: 'Certainly the archaeology on this project so far is probably the most important excavation ever held within London, certainly within Roman London.

[wildbill]

Probably the most amazing are the wooden artifacts and intact leather shoes/boots.

The leather goods are believed to be the only surviving leather artifacts from the Roman era anywhere in the world. We’ve seen them as pictures on frescoes or on statuary, but to actually see the real thing is startling.

As an aside, I ran into a leather-good shop on St. Thomas years ago that measured your feet and made sandals based on images from Roman sources. They were pretty comfortable and I wore them until the wore completely out.

[lonevoice]

That’s a wonderful story about your shoes!

I’d love to see pictures of the intact leather shoes they uncovered. I wish a photo of them had been included in the article.

[wildbill]

I think one of the links provided by Sunken Civ in the original thread had a lot more pictures and the boots were at that site.