Greek sandals-soles

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

I remember reference to greek shoes having hobnails. But i haven't ever seen them in art,nor have seen actual hobnails in any museum. Has anybody reference to ancient greek hobnails? If nor,how else would they make the soles?
Any sources for accurate(even roman) hobnails?
I'm trying to use caligae construction in order to guide a manufacturer make me greek sandals.I'm mainly interested on how the back stitch was made. Was it reinforced? I have seen caligae both with reinforcement of a leather stipe and without, What is more accurate? In some photos of ancient surviving caligae that i have seen there doesn't seem tho have any reenforcement,but most reconstructions have. What is more accurate?
There were not greek military sandals so evidence from any kind of shoes would be of interest.
Thanks
Khairete
Giannis

[Paralus]

I remember reference to greek shoes having hobnails. But i haven't ever seen them in art,nor have seen actual hobnails in any museum. Has anybody reference to ancient greek hobnails? If nor,how else would they make the soles? [...] There were not greek military sandals so evidence from any kind of shoes would be of interest.
Thanks
Khairete
Giannis

Perhaps there were military "shoes". Certainly hobnail boots (with thanks to Amyntoros.... Plutarch, Alexander 40.1):

He saw that his favourites had grown altogether luxurious, and were vulgar in the extravagance of their ways of living. For instance, Hagnon the Teian used to wear silver nails in his boots; Leonnatus had dust for his gymnastic exercises brought to him on many camels from Egypt; Philotas had hunting-nets ...

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Thanks for that reference! It is a good one. Where does the other one come from,about the Athenian prostitures having their hobnails forming a word?
Khaire
Giannis

[Paralus]

Thanks for that reference! It is a good one. Where does the other one come from,about the Athenian prostitures having their hobnails forming a word?
Khaire
Giannis

I'll have to work on that one. Given it involves Athenian prostitutes, I'm tempted to re-read the Demetrius...

[Peter Raftos]

See my last post on the Greek Footwear thread for hobnails link from old RAT

Yes there were sandals with marked soles that have been found which left an imprint that stated ???????? / AKOLOUTHI ("Follow me") See[url:uyw9mf6l]http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/UJ0o8fu77pNo5GAvw_eGXw[/url]

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

But,Peter,these sandals surely can't be ancient! They're a reconstruction,right?

[Martin Moser]

Sorry, but those sandals look like 19th century museum wishful thinking too me. There is however a Roman oil lamp (pottery!) in the form of a foot with a sandal that shows that nailing pattern. That is the only writing done with a nailing pattern I have ever come across, however (although I have heard people speaking of this lamp as if it were an actual shoe).

[Peter Raftos]

I think you two could be right. I'll e-mail the owner and find out.

[Matt Lukes]

I've seen one Roman sandal- a woman's type- that has an arrow in the middle, suggested to be a 'follow me' symbol (although this is pretty wishful thinking I should think)...

I agree with Martin that those sandals look like 19th century pieces. I would wonder just how many of ancient prostitutes' "customers" were literate enough for any writing to be of use...

[Ron Rogers]

A good image I have seen is that of Achillies bandaging another. I would assume the sole would be a single piece of leather, as two/three layers sewn together would seen wear away the stitching, and I am not aware of any greek hobnails.

Are there any reconstructions of these sandals?
Why not just go bare foot? It would seem more accurate if we are to base our reconstructions upon potery images.

[Magnus]

Being bare foot can pose a safety issue, especially in public areas. You never know what is on the ground that can/will poke you...

[Matt Lukes]

A good image I have seen is that of Achillies bandaging another. I would assume the sole would be a single piece of leather, as two/three layers sewn together would seen wear away the stitching

Not entirely true- there's such a thing as a tunnel stitch wereby a curved needle goes down into a leather sole, then back up (making a tunnel), and never appearing on the other side. The Romans used this one it seems, and it's not unreasonable to expect it would be an earlier innovation, being that it's a fairly obvious solution that a leatherworker would come up with. Plus sculptural depictions of Greek sandals clearly show a sole and an upper, and they must be stitched together.

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

I just returned from Athens where i visited some museums. In the agora museum I saw greek large hobnails. In the kerameikos museum there was a pair of leather soles. Probably woman's shoes. They had bronze(!) nails visible under and over the soles. If they were hobnails-becase only three were visible- they were tiny. There is a possibility that they were rivets,fiven they were one between the toes and two in each side,where one could expect some stripes. Photos to follow.
For the Achilles' sandals,i have to say that it's the most frequent type of sandal shown in both pottery and sculpture. I saw up close many depictions of it,and unfortunately it is more sophisticated than it seems. I will post photos of those too, a bit later.
Khairete
Giannis

[Ron Rogers]

Looking forward to those Achillies sandal photos.

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Achilles' sandals. Note the stripe that goes between the toes,not visible in the Achilles-Patroclos vase. Also new information for me was the stipe behind the heel. The frontal stripe is separated in two a bit before meeting the horizontal ankle stripe. Another bronze piece in the National Museum shows that this was two stripes that open like that.


The leather soles with the bronze hobnails are these ones: