The purpose of this paper is to bring a small number of very simple single-piece or one-piece shoes to the attention of a wider audience because, although their importance has been recognised by those engaged in the study of archaeological footwear (Hald 1972; Goubitz 1997, 432–435; Groenman-van Waateringe 2001, 387–388; Harjula 2008, 25, 97–101: Volken 2012, 69–70, 216), they are likely to have escaped the notice of those interested in the broader aspects of medieval material culture (c. 5th–15th century). They may represent a rare survival of an under-appreciated traditional craft used from the earliest times in the home to make everyday items for the family that continued in rural communities throughout the Middle Ages and into recent times. In 2008 a complete and beautifully preserved shoe of cowhide was found in a cave (Areni-1) in Armenia (Pinhasi et al. 2010). It is one of the earliest known shoes to be recovered having been radiocarbon dated to the 4th millennium BC and, as such, it appears to be what the well dressed person was wearing in the early Bronze Age. More surprisingly perhaps, this same style of shoe was also being worn by the rather badly dressed person in Oslo in the 13th century (Schia 1977, 176 fig. 98) and on the Faroe Islands off the northern coast of Scotland in the 20th century (Figure 8.1) (Hald 1972, 171–174 fig. 200). How can this be?
Images of prehistoric bodies, some clothed and wearing shoes, recovered from the peat bogs of North Western Europe are familiar to many. These shoes have been studied and described by Margrethe Hald (1972) and more recently the subject of European prehistoric footwear has been summarised by Prof. Willy Gronman-van Waateringe (2001) and categorised by Marquita Volken (2012). At their most simple these earliest shoes were little more than wrappings for the feet made of a single piece of untreated animal skin or hide (the skin of a larger animal), the sides gathered up, pulled together and tied to the foot with thongs or sinew (Figure 8.4 top for example). As time went on these simple single-piece designs were slightly modified by cutting and sewing in order to better shape them to the foot. Even at this early stage differing styles can be seen (Figure 8.2), of which the shoe from the cave in Armenia is one. Later the cutting patterns became increasingly more complex or the pleating and gathering of the material so adept that the resulting shoes became surprisingly sophisticated though still only made from a single piece of untreated or cured skin (Gronman-van Waateringe 2001, 382 fig. 3). These prehistoric shoes are rare finds surviving only under exceptional conditions as untreated skins and cured skins, that is skins treated using various drying, oiling or smoking techniques, quickly rot in damp conditions. Major changes can be seen in the footwear worn during the Roman period in both the materials and the constructions used. Within the Roman Empire vegetable-tanned leather was used in great quantity. During the vegetable-tanning process the skin undergoes chemical changes making it resistant to rot, consequently much has survived including footwear. As well as single-piece shoes, shoes were now made of several component parts with separate soles and uppers either nailed, stitched or thonged together, occurring in a wide range of styles (van Driel-Murray 2001, 343 fig. 10). Following the collapse of the Roman Empire the range of shoe constructions and styles appears to have become more limited and footwear made from a single piece of leather, though often with sophisticated cutting patterns, continued to be worn, along with shoes made with separate soles of turnshoe construction, through to the end of the millennium. The turnshoe construction is so named because the separate sole and upper were sewn together inside out and then turned the right side out with the result that the stitching of the seam, being on the inside of the shoe, was protected from wear. Later the turnshoe construction was to rapidly take over as the principle method of shoe construction throughout North Western Europe for the rest of the medieval period. The development and progression of shoe constructions and styles worn throughout North Western Europe is well established so that, for the most part, when well preserved shoes are recovered they can be dated with confidence.