Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1981, Blaðsíða 246

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A pair of Hide Shoes
sandals of this type, represented in several finds, are the result of
impulses from the culture of Rome.18)
Although the Thorsbjerg shoes are not what one would normally
call shoes with soles, we must nevertheless touch on this type in this
connection, because certain details would seem to show that a true
sole was fixed to the bottom of the shoe by means of tacks. Thus
it is possible that in the North shoes with soles developed on the
basis of impulses which may be traced to Roman culture, although
we cannot be certain of this. After all, the idea of making the sole
from a separate piece of leather seems obvious, especially as one
could then replace a worn-out sole. The shoe from Borremose bog
in Jutland is an example of a shoe made from several pieces of hide
at an early date, but it does not have a true sole: one piece comprises
the heel part of the shoe, another the tip, while a third, nicely scal-
loped, covered the instep. The shoe is laced on top by means of a
thin thong. The Borremose shoe was found together with potsherds
dating from the end of the Celtic period or the beginning of the
Roman (c. 100 BC - AD 100).18a) Moreover, a find as early as that
from Guldhøj, which dates from the early Bronze Age, includes
remains of woollen footwear which MARGRETHE HALD describes
as shoes with soles.
Parallel with the development which led to shoes with true soles,
we find a number of more primitive types of footwear, all of them
belonging to the numerous group commonly designated hideshoes.
They may be described as footwear made from one piece of hide
which, after primitive cutting and stitching, is bent up around the
foot, and held together with thongs passing through slits or loops
around the ankle. As typical examples of hide-shoes we may men-
tion those found in the bogs at Fræer, Daugbjerg and Rønbjerg.19)
There is an obvious similarity between the shoes from these bog
finds, and they must all have been made in more or less the same
way: one piece of hide was, after most essential cutting, bent up
around the foot and formed to shape. A cut at the back, stitched
together, formed the heel.
The shoes from Rønbjerg and Fræer have a fold above the foot,
covered by lacing, whereas the Daugbjerg shoe is slashed at this