Caligae Construction

[Martin Moser]

A few thoughts on Caballo's most excellent pics:

On the back of the caliga and on the tip of the tabs you can see lines which might either have been additional decoration or markings from when the leather was initially cut to shape (arrows A)

There are two seams running down the heel vertically, a typical caliga construction, also common with the Mainz finds. The inner one (arrow B), with only holes remaining probably is a grain/edge seam, often doubled by a flesh/edge seam from the inside, but that's not visible here.
Originally the two back halves would have joined all the way down to the sole, i.e. no triangular gap there, covered all the way by the protective , probably parallel-sided leather band above.



The cutouts are decorated with little buds in the corners, a decoration also often seen with european finds (arrow C). The protective leather band covering the back seam seems to have a narrower, double inner seam. Stitching is narrow-spaced and with thin thread, holes do not appear to go through the layer beneath, so this may have been another decorational feature (arrow D)



There are traces of stitching in a few places (not only the heel) visible on the underside of the (middle layer) sole, indicating that it was not only nailed, but also stichted to the outer sole. The way the leather budges out between every other interval of holes is exactly what it looks like when you attach the outer sole with a single forward tunnel stitch. (arrow E)



Looking forward to more pics!