M. Traullé, an antiquarian of Abbeville, who died in 1828, stated that he had seen a large number of mules' shoes extracted from the battle-field of Saucourt, where Louis III. defeated the Normans in 881 or 882.[1]
M. J. Long, author of a memoir on the Roman antiquities of Vocontia, which appeared in the transactions of the Academic des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, states:— 'I possess a horse-shoe slightly different from that now in use, and in perfect preservation. It was found in the neighbourhood of Monte-Chalençon, among cinders, with lachrymatories and burnt bones. Its preservation ought to be attributed to the cinders and animal charcoal. The branches of this shoe are very narrow; the stamping of the nail-holes has produced bulgings. These stampings are elongated apertures; those of modern shoes are square. The ancient shoe has no ajusture, or concave form, which facilitates support. The freshness of the stampings and the state of the toe, leads to the presumption that it has been little worn. It therefore appears that, contrary to the opinion of several authors, horseshoeing was known to the ancients.' The remains accompanying this article were pronounced to be Gallo-Roman.
At Prémeaux, arrondissement of Nuits, a quantity of horse-shoes were exhumed in the vicinity of a road of Roman construction by the pickaxe of a labourer. Many of them were found buried beneath the strata, of the road. 'This circumstance is worthy of notice, because it has been asserted that the ancients were not in the habit of shoeing their horses. Found in such a bed, these shoes
- ↑ Le Tombeau de Childeric.
