Roman Dog Footprint (1st – 2nd century CE)
Almost 2,000 years ago, a tile maker in the modern Leicester, England area manufactured clay tiles, but had one pesky canine friend to contend with. While their clay tiles dried, a dog stepped on the tiles still in production. After being shooed away, the footprints remained. The tiles were still functional, and unlikely to be seen by most people anyway, so they were still installed on a building or structure.
Such animal prints weren’t particularly rare; the Leicester Roman-era archaeological site revealed several similar prints from dogs, cats, sheep and other small livestock on tiles. These prints have been preserved as a snapshot of a moment when animals acted just like modern pets, walking across a workspace. As archaeologist Philip Biggs told LiveScience, “My initial though was that it must have been very difficult being a Roman tile manufacturer with these animal incursions going on all the time.”
