A bit of fancy Roman-ness from the history department ;-)
This pair is made after one of two quite similar finds (no.s 220 and 221) from one of the wells at the Saalburg castell, dated to the 2nd cent AD. The cut and decoration of the uppers is so similar, yet different, that it seems likely that they came from the same workshop if not from the same hand.
The finds were made more than a hundred years ago and the details of the construction are not entirely clear. The decoration is an elegant mix of circular holes, triangles, squares, darts and slits. Here I'm following the suggestion of Marquita Volken by further enhancing the decoration by stitching with coloured thread and bands woven through the slits.
As the original sole does not survive, the nailing pattern is taken from contemporary finds. At a total of more that 1500 cutouts and slits I guess we can safely count this pair among the heavily decorated Roman shoes.
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