A. Veldmeijer – Footwear in Ancient Egypt

Автор: A. Veldmeijer
Название книги: Footwear in Ancient Egypt
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Мода
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

STUDYING FOOTWEAR
Although sandals are mentioned in many popular accounts
about ancient Egypt this is usually only in passing and not
based on studies. Actually, the study of footwear, a term preferred
rather than ‘sandal’ as in ancient Egypt there are more
types of footwear than only sandals as we will see, only took
off several years ago with the Ancient Egyptian Footwear
Project (AEFP). This Project has a multidisciplinary and
holistic approach, including a large sample from various
collections around the world as well as from (recent) excavations.
The Project’s focus is on the archaeological specimen,
but it also investigates how footwear was depicted on
tomb and temple walls. The written record, such as papyri
and ostraca, is studied too and, at the end of the project, the
information of these three parts is to be combined. Material
from all periods are being studied, and although the focus
is more or less on Pharaonic material, still, post-Pharaonic
material is investigated including Ottoman material from for
example Qasr Ibrim. The main goal of the Project is to get a
better insight in footwear in all its aspects (among which are
manufacturing technology and personal identity).
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD
Egypt is famous for the rich archaeological record, which is
very favourable for artefacts made of organic material such
as plant fibres and wood. Organic material only preserves for
so long in (extremely) arid conditions or waterlogged: in all
other circumstances, save rare exceptions, nothing will be
left after some years. Thus, in Egypt, organic materials are
only preserved in the South and at the desert sites, but not
in the wet and salty Delta region. This, of course, results in
a bias which is, for knowledge about footwear for the society
at large, very disadvantageous as footwear is mainly made
of organic materials (vegetable fibres, leather, wood). Thus,
we have no finds from the northern regions but this does not
mean, therefore, that the people who lived there, did not wear
footwear that was made of organic materials.
Another bias occurs due to the fact that older sites might
already have disappeared because in more recent times, the
area was used differently. Especially in the Delta, agriculture
has damaged much of the top levels of sites. Another example
is that many Middle Kingdom sites have disappeared under
New Kingdom occupation. That early levels are not so well
preserved is often also due to the accumulation of (many) generations,
often spanning thousands of years. This, however,
might also be a reason that the earliest levels are preserved as
the layers on top might have protected them – this very much
depends on the character of the settlement.
The archaeological record is also biased due to looting, which
started already as soon as a tomb was closed in ancient times.
Note that looting is still going on and even increases due to
the turbulent times in Egypt. Finally, much information was
lost due to the way of working of early archaeologists, which
more often than not, was closer to robbing than scientific
excavation. In the early days of Egyptology, dealing in antiquities
was not forbidden and many collections in the world
have a bought collection as their basis. These objects were often
obtained by (illegal) excavations and any information on
the provenance was usually lost on the way to the collector.
This means an incredible loss of information or, as Howard
Carter (Carter & Mace, 1923: 125) explains about the feeling
that obtained objects are as important as those from proper
excavations: “There was never a greater mistake. Field-work
is all-important, and it is a sure and certain fact that if every
excavation had been properly, systematically, and conscientiously
carried out, our knowledge of Egyptian archaeology
would be at least 50 per cent. greater than it is.”
A great variety of materials were used in ancient Egypt for
footwear: rawhide (unprocessed skin that might only have
been cleaned from the hair) and leather (skin which is made
durable; usually only tanned skin is referred to as ‘leather’
and not the oil-cured skins that was default in Pharaonic
Egypt, but the term will be used here nonetheless), various
types of vegetable fibres such as palm leaf and fibre (the
leaf sheath of a palm leaf), halfa grasses and reeds. In later
times, flax was used for sewing but in earlier times especially,
sinew was used and, on a more limited scale, leather thongs.
Wood was used, mainly for tomb sandals although in later
times, wooden pattens and clog-like pieces are known. Wood,
however, has not been used in footwear in a way that was
common in Europe in Medieval Times, which can be easily
explained by the fact that wood is scarce in Egypt and therefore
relatively expensive. Metal was used for tomb sandals
too, although more precious metals, such as gold and silver,
could also be used in footwear that might have been worn,
either passively or actively. The most beautiful examples of
such footwear come from the tomb of Tutankhamun (figure 1)
and Yuya and Tjuiu, the great-grandparents of the world’s
most famous Pharao.
THE FOOTWEAR COLLECTION IN THE MEDELHAVSMUSEET
This work presents the footwear collection that is housed in
the Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm and includes a catalogue.
The collection is much varied: the main part of the it was collected
by Major R.G. Gayer-Anderson and clearly shows his great
expertise in collecting; he had an eye for obtaining as much
different types of footwear as possible, resulting in a varied
collection with several pieces that are not found elsewhere.