A bronze leg found in a Scottish bog changes views on Roman occupation

A bronze leg found in a rural Scottish bog more than 200 years ago is helping historians rewrite the history of the Roman empire.

The gilded limb, known as the Milsington leg, served as a centerpiece for a new exhibition on Roman Scotland in Edinburgh. For a long time, antiquarians believed Scottish tribes looted the object from York and carried it north over Hadrian’s Wall.

In 1932, scholar James Curle stated that he could not imagine the conditions that would have led to the statue's erection anywhere north of the Great Wall. New evidence from the find is now challenging these previous theories about how the Romans occupied the region.