A Roman roof tile stored at a museum in southwestern England has been discovered to contain an unusual surprise – paw prints made by a cat an estimated 2,000 years ago which were found by researchers looking through artifacts obtained during a 1969 excavation.
According to Discovery News, the tile was found during an archaeological dig in Gloucester but the paw print itself had long gone unnoticed. As David Rice, curator at Gloucester City Museum, said to the website, “At that time the archaeologists seem to have been more interested in digging things up than looking at what they found.”
Experts believe that the cat ran across the wet clay tile when it was set out to dry, most likely around 100AD. Despite the feline footprint, the Romans fired the tile and used it on the roof of a building in what became the Berkeley Street area of modern Gloucester.
Paw prints likely left by the pesky pet of a Roman soldier
A museum representative told The Telegraph that when Romans made roof tiles such as this one, which was a type of tile known as tegula, they left the wet clay out to dry in the sun. While these tiles were drying, animals (and sometimes people) would walk across them, leaving footprints.
The cat, which is believed to have been the pet of a Roman soldier stationed at the construction site, probably snuck across the wet tiles, much to the dismay of the tile makers. Nonetheless, the tiles were still used, and the paw print went largely unnoticed until recently, when it was found by an archaeologist sifting through tile fragments at the museum.
The tile, which is now on display at the Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery, contain “the only example for Roman domestic cats that visitors can see in the museum,” Rice told Discovery News. “I believe there are more cat paw prints found on ancient Roman tiles in Britain than anywhere else in the Roman Empire… Roman Britons must have had a special liking for cats.”
Councilor Lise Noakes, cabinet member for culture and leisure at Gloucester City Council, told The Telegraph that it was “a fascinating discovery. Dog paw prints, people’s boot prints and even a piglet’s trotter print have all been found on tiles from Roman Gloucester, but cat prints are very rare. Why not come along and see it for yourself at The City Museum and Art Gallery?”
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Image credit: David Rice
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