Analysing Roman hobnail footwear in soil-blocks using radiography: Design, dating, and identities

• Hobnails commonly occur in Romano-British inhumation burials. • Radiography enables non-destructive recording of hobnails preserved in soil-blocks. • Hobnail patterns and quantities reveal footwear design and size. • Footwear styles reflect shifts in Roman fashion trends over time. • Soil-block imaging helps establish site chronology and supports biological profiling. This study presents the radiographic imaging and analysis of eight soil-blocks containing hobnailed footwear from a Romano-British cemetery (5-5a Rhodaus Town, Canterbury, England). The site, dated to the Late Roman period, underwent archaeological excavation prior to commercial development in 2019. Of the 215 inhumations identified, 51 contained evidence of footwear by virtue of hobnails in varying quantities. For a selection of graves, radiography was performed upon soil-blocks with the aim of demonstrating footwear design and dimensions using hobnail distribution, despite the absence of leatherwork. The resultant imaging showed a range of designs in keeping with known examples elsewhere and can assist dating according to changes in fashion. Dimensions of footwear length and width appeared to correlate with descriptions of interred individuals within the osteological report. Limitations for the use of radiography includes taphonomic changes within the grave, damage during excavation, or post-excavation changes within the soil-block which alter the original position of hobnails. Geometric unsharpness is also an inherent limitation within radiography and impacts the accuracy of measurements. Despite this, radiography has been demonstrated as a useful tool, providing a permanent imaging record prior to micro-excavation and aiding identification of footwear type and design. Of particular utility is the imaging of soil-blocks where no skeletal remains have survived, in which case footwear design and dimensions may offer the only clues for age-at-death, biological sex, and social status.