Damendorf Shoes

The Damendorf shoes belong to an Iron Age bog find of the body of a man, C14 dated to between 135 and 335 AD. These shoes have an ingenious way to save material creating a network upper: a series of longish cuts that are then drawn up after wetting the leather. The lace is integral with the shoe, the only piece that is separate is the high upper part of the heel. 

Interestingly there is a very similar shoe from Wijster in the Netherlands, which is dated to the 4th century AD, see Carbatina from Wijster. 

• Van Driel-Murray, Carol. Mode in de nadagen van het Keizerrijk: de schoenen van Cuijk. Westerheem 56 (2007). pp. 133-141
• Es, W.A. van, 1967. Wijster. A native village beyond the Imperial frontier 150-425 A. D. (Palaeohistoria XI) Groningen.
• Hald, Margrethe. Primitive Shoes. An Archaeological-Ethnographical Study Based Upon Shoe Finds from the Jutland Peninsula. 1972. pp 54.