Martres de Veyre Calceus

This is a reproduction of the shoes found in the late 1800s in the so-called Tomb D of the Martres De Veyre burials. This burial of a young women is special in that it produced a more or less full set of Gallic clothing including shoes, dated to the late 2nd century AD.

The shoes are of a type also found in several variations in Welzheim, although not as much decorated apparently. The upper is made of goat leather and has a small piece of leather protecting the tip of the shoe and the front part of the seam that closes the upper. The nailing is comparatively light and done in a pattern reminiscent of earlier finds. Internal constructional details are not known, so I chose the at the time widespread method of cross-bracing the upper to secure it before sewing on the outer sole with a blind or tunnelstitched seam.

• Audollent, A. 1922, Les tombes gallo-romaines à inhumation des Martres-de-Veyre (Puy-de-Dôme), Mémoires présentés par divers savants à l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres 13, 275-328.
• van Driel-Murray, C. A set of Roman clothing from Les Martres-de-Veyre, France. Archaeol. Textiles Newsletter 28, 1999, 11-15.