Mainz Ledermuseum Caliga Reconstruction

[Matt Lukes]

One question though, how do they fit your feet? It looks like you made the sole rather wide around the heel. I think that the upper should wrap around the heel to lock the foot in place. I've been achieving that by making the sole very narrow. Then again, I do have rather narrow feet.

Not sure what you mean Lee. The sole isn't excessively wide anywhere- it's about 3mm wider than the foot tracing I used, and it fits just fine. The upper does wrap around the heel and the caliga is quite firmly held in place as I've made it...

[Neuraleanus]

Like I did here:

www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic.php?t=20309

The sole is very narrow around the heel so that the upper wraps around the foot. As I said, I have narrow feet. Perhaps your feet are wider.

[Matt Lukes]

Do you mean you made the sole narrower than the foot at the heel?

If you look at the picture of the back, you can clearly see that the upper curves out from the heel both at the back and at the sides- that's not just weight sag or anything- so the sole on mine isn't wider than the foot's maximum width above the sole, therefore it is 'form fitting'. And I've noticed no tendency to slip around inside or anything- it's a good fit.

I'd think it's not so much the shape of the sole but where the upper is secured to the sole- that stitching and nailing is about the exact size or even slightly smaller than the actual foot so the upper does wrap around.

[Marcus Caecilius Avitus]

Nice work Matt.

A few questions on the construction technique;

Is that tunnel stich on the heel seem?

The (hidden) lower end of the heel, is it stiched to the sole section (of the upper) or is it left not stiched?

How have you attached the uppers to the sole? stiched or other method?

[Matt Lukes]

I actually thought a tunnel stitch would be unnecessarily complicated when one actaully has two layers of sole to work with- I simply stitched the upper to the first sole, right through. It's stronger than a tunnel stitch and makes rather more sense to me since the second lower sole protects the stitching just as well. The heel is closed with a simple through stitch- an original in the British Museum someone- I apologize, I can't actually remember who it was- posted a while back shows it was closed this way. The stitching of the upper to the first sole is the full perimeter, and the subsequent hobnailing goes through all three layers, thus there are almost an excess of mechanical securing methods holding the sandal together :wink:

[Neuraleanus]

I actually thought a tunnel stitch would be unnecessarily complicated when one actually has two layers of sole to work with- I simply stitched the upper to the first sole, right through.

I'm not sure that hobnails are necessarily a structural component. I think that it has been shown that the Romans stitched and nailed the soles of caligae. I've been using a single layer out-sole made from 16oz bend (compressed leather). The trick to doing the tunnel stitching is to use the right tools. I've discovered that cut-off curved suture needles chucked into an awl holder work very well. They don't break as easily as curved awls seem to do. As Martin Moser describes you need to soak the sole in hot water for a couple of hours before hand. Once you have the tunnels made, again as Martin describes, I use a flexible steel needle, a loop of thin steel wire soldered at one end, to make the stitches.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I would imagine it makes for a very robust caligae! Bomb proof, perhaps, being a slight exaggeration!

[Senovara]

oooh, very nice caliga! (and so stylish too) :wink:

[Martin Moser]

I actually thought a tunnel stitch would be unnecessarily complicated when one actaully has two layers of sole to work with

Matt, forgive me for saying so, but normally one hasn't. Soles typically are single-layered. For a typical caliga you have from bottom up: 1. outer sole, 2. middle layer (= upper leather), 3. inner sole. At least that's the way with what finds I'm aware of.
The same principle holds true for all kinds of calcei, only that the middle layer consists of the welt of the upper (sandwiched between the single layered inner and outer soles) with the space left or rather framed by the welt filled with normally 2 longish offcuts attached to the inner sole by a thin strip of leather.
Not all the outer soles were attached by stitching however, some were nailed only (well, and possibly glued, but descriptions are often lacking in that respect). Where they were stitched, tunnel-stitching is the norm.

[sulla felix]

Martin - so do the hobnails pass through all three? Or only the sole and middle layer?

[Matt Lukes]

That's interesting Martin- of all the images and diagrams I have, it either can't be said how many layers a sole had because the artifact is just the upper, or is photographed or drawn from above, not the side, or there are definitely two layers. I guess many or all of those that aren't easily discernable are just one then. :wink: But being three reasonably well-preserved examples (from the RGZM and Mainz Landesmuseum, and the French National Archaeological Museum, respectively), in a population of 5 different caligae in total- the last two being diagrams that I can't clearly tell if have intact soles or not, you can see why it seems to me that two layers wasn't exactly uncommon. Here are sections of them:




How many do you know of Martin that clearly have 1 sole layer- I'm very curious to know what the proportion is.

As for the stitching, clearly tunnel stitching would be necessary if the sole was only one layer- but was that definitely the way if it was two? That is if the double-layer ones were stitched at all?

[Martin Moser]

Hi Matt,

thanks for the interesting pictures, you are right to question this. Do you know where the finds are from? They indeed look like double outer soles, although there also is the possibility of self-splitting leather (reported with various finds).

How many do you know of Martin that clearly have 1 sole layer- I'm very curious to know what the proportion is.

I just checked and found (thus my posting above):

Mainz finds from the 1980s: about 9 caligae, none of which is reported to have a double outer sole.

Castleford: 3 (1 of which is uncertain, sole only) none of which is reported to have a double outer sole.

Mainz finds from the 1850s: the report from 1900 says 23 caligae were found, none of which is reported to have a double outer sole.

Waterman reports on the caligae finds from Valkenburg that "de zolen altijd uit drie lagen zijn opgebouwd: buiten-, tussen en binnenzool" (which I think says that they are all made from 3 layers, outer, middle or in-between and inner sole - could some dutch speaker please confirm this? I need to get a Dutch dictionary)

All the articles on the above finds talk about a 3-layered construction of the caliga, outer, middle and inner sole, none mentiones a double outer sole. Van Driel in Stepping Through Time also echoes this description. The Can.celleria relief also shows a single layer outer sole. Tunnel stitch attachment ist the norm it seems (reported very often), the inner sole can be tunnel stitched to the middle layer as well, in Mainz they were also glued in. In Mainz at least nailing only goes through outer and middle layer.

[Marcus Mummius]

Waterman reports on the caligae finds from Valkenburg that "de zolen altijd uit drie lagen zijn opgebouwd: buiten-, tussen en binnenzool" (which I think says that they are all made from 3 layers, outer, middle or in-between and inner sole - could some dutch speaker please confirm this? I need to get a Dutch dictionary)

Your translation is perfect, Martin. :wink:

Vale,
Jef

[Martin Moser]

Thanks for reconfirming this, Jef! :-) )

[Matt Lukes]

Well I don't know where exactly they were found, only where they are now- the places I mentioned (RGZM, etc.). And for at least the first two, it's clear that it's not a case of splitting- unless it could happen clearly down the entire length at the midline, and the third really doesn't look like it is either althought it's less clear.

Now the ones you mention Martin- it's one thing for there to be no mention of a two layered sole, but that's not the same thing as them reporting that it's a single layer; do they actually say it's one thickness? It's not that I doubt that there were caligae with single layer soles, or even that it wasn't the more common form, I'm just interested to know the relative proportion.

It's interesting that most of the time the nails didn't penetrate the insole- it seemed to defeat the purpose of an insole, but most seem to have holes in them and I'd always wondered if that was just decay from contact with the iron, or if the nails really did go through them.