According to this article in the Smithsonian,the supersized footwear comes from a Roman-era fort called Magna, which is located along Hadrian’s Wall (The Romans built a 73-mile defensive wall across northern England, beginning in 122 AD, to protect against the incursions of the Picts and Caledonii, tribes they could not conquer). Also known as Carvoran, the fort was operational from 85 to 122 AD, according to the Roman Army Museum.
Since May, archaeologists working at Magna have unearthed eight massive leather shoes that each measure more than 11.8 inches long. The extra-large specimens now make up roughly a quarter of all the shoes found at the site so far. Researchers discovered the first huge shoe while excavating a defensive ditch where Roman soldiers sometimes dumped their trash. One sole was 12.6 inches long, which is roughly the same size as a men’s size 14 in the United States (which is the largest 1 to 2% of men’s feet) reports Live Science’s Kristina Killgrove.
Researchers don’t know why some of the footwear at Magna is so large. They’ve also unearthed thousands of shoes at the nearby Roman fort of Vindolanda, but most of those were normal in size. Of the 3,704 measurable shoes discovered at Vindolanda, just 16 of them, or about 0.4 percent, were longer than 11.8 inches, per Live Science. For comparison, 25 percent of the shoes found at Magna so far have been more than 11.8 inches long.
I would suggest that the shoes were made for the Picts, the tribe Rome could not conquer. The Romans called them Picti (Latin: “painted”) because the Picts painted themselves blue before going into battle, with a dye from the Woad plant (herbalists believe the woad root has antiseptic qualities, so perhaps the Picts slathered it on for reasons beyond intimidating the enemy and telling friend from foe in a melee).
A man needing a size 14 shoe is at least six foot six inches tall, whereas the average Roman man was about five foot five. If those size 14 shoes belonged to the Picts, I can see the Roman centurions getting together and one of them saying, “I’m thinking that rather than going up north looking for trouble, we should just build a wall. What do you guys think?”
Before the Flood, people were more than twice the average height of people today, lived 10 times as long, and were more than ten times as intelligent. After the Flood people dwindled to their present size, lifespans, and intelligence levels. More about this in my series on Giants.
“We saw the Nephilim there . . . We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” Numbers 13:33