Well-Preserved Roman Sandal Recovered in Spain

ASTURIAS, SPAIN—According to an El País report, a sandal has been recovered from a residential well in a Roman administrative center in northern Spain known as Lucus Asturum, which was occupied between the first and fourth centuries A.D. “The remains we found, due to the anoxia generated by the high water table in the area, are in an exceptional state,” said archaeologist Esperanza Martín Hernández. The silt at the bottom of the well also preserved part of the well’s wooden cover, jars, seeds, chestnuts, pine nuts, mollusks, the bones of wild and domesticated animals, a bronze cauldron, and a small metal ring, she added. The footwear, which is decorated with circles, ovals, and sickle-shaped figures, is thought to have been lost by a man who tried to clean the well some 2,000 years ago. Recent surveys of the site have also detected baths, a canal, and a garbage dump in the city. To read about Roman silver mining in Iberia, go to "Spain's Silver Boom."