1st century Solea from Mainz

[Martin Moser]

Hi,

my daughter needed a new pair of shoes so I thought I'd try a pair of soleae for a change. I found a 1st century piece from Mainz I quite liked (in Göpfrich, Jutta: Römische Lederfunde aus Mainz. Offenbach: 1991). What I thought really touching was that my daughters feet measures 21.5 cm in length, exactly the same as the original, meaning that almost 2000 years ago that solea probably belonged to a girl about the same size and age!

Here is the original, note how the sole and the upper strings are cut from the same piece of leather. There also was an insole, though missing now.



And here my "approach" (the sole actually would need to be cut a bit narrower, but I wanted them to be comfortable to wear for her)