Archaeologists Discover an Ancient Roman Sandal with Nails Used for Tread

A recre­ation of the mil­i­tary san­dals. (Pho­to: Bavar­i­an State Office for Mon­u­ment Preser­va­tion)

Whether you’re putting togeth­er a stage play, a film, or a tele­vi­sion series, if the sto­ry is set in ancient Rome, you know you’re going to have to get a lot of san­dals on order. This task may sound more straight­for­ward than it is, for sim­ply copy­ing the styles of clas­sic pro­duc­tions that take place in the Roman Empire will put you on the wrong side of the his­tor­i­cal research. We now know, for instance, that some ancient Romans wore their san­dals with socks, a look that, seen in today’s cul­tur­al con­text, may not give quite the desired impres­sion. And thanks to an even more recent dis­cov­ery, it seems we also need to think about what’s on their soles.

Dis­cov­ered near the Bavar­i­an city of Ober­stimm, “an ancient Roman san­dal, large­ly decayed but recon­struct­ed through X‑ray, sug­gests the spread of mil­i­tary fash­ion to local pop­u­la­tions.” So writes Madeleine Muz­dakis at My Mod­ern Met, explain­ing that its type were known as cali­gae, which “had tough soles with hob­nails [that] pro­vid­ed trac­tion for the troops,” who did a fair bit of march­ing.

This par­tic­u­lar cali­ga dates from between 60 and 130, around the time the Roman army switched from san­dals to boots, and it shows that, dur­ing their time in this part of Bavaria, their footwear had an influ­ence on what the civil­ians were wear­ing.

An x‑ray of the ancient san­dals. (Pho­to: Bavar­i­an State Office for Mon­u­ment Preser­va­tion

The idea that stan­dard-issue mil­i­tary gear could influ­ence pop­u­lar fash­ion may sur­prise any­one who’s ever had to wear a pair of “GI glass­es.” But in its hey­day, the Roman army was­n’t just a group of occu­piers installed to project force on the part of a dis­tant metro­pole, but an exten­sion of civ­i­liza­tion itself. If the hob­nails in Roman mil­i­tary san­dals afford­ed extra trac­tion in addi­tion to the sub­tle sug­ges­tion of cul­tur­al sophis­ti­ca­tion, so much the bet­ter. Though the ques­tion of just how far and wide this par­tic­u­lar type of footwear (which appears recon­struct­ed at the top of the post, and in X‑ray just above) spread through the Roman Empire remains a mat­ter for fur­ther research, now would be as good a time as any for cos­tume design­ers to stock up on nails.

via Live Sci­ence/My Mod­ern Met

Relat­ed con­tent:

Ele­gant 2,000-Year-Old Roman Shoe Found in a Well

The Ancient Romans First Com­mit­ted the Sar­to­r­i­al Crime of Wear­ing Socks with San­dals, Archae­o­log­i­cal Evi­dence Sug­gests

Archae­ol­o­gists Dis­cov­er a 2,000-Year-Old Roman Glass Bowl in Per­fect Con­di­tion

What the Romans Saw When They Reached New Parts of the World: Hear First-Hand Accounts by Appi­an, Pliny, Tac­i­tus & Oth­er Ancient His­to­ri­ans

Do You Think About Ancient Rome Every Day? Then Browse a Wealth of Videos, Maps & Pho­tos That Explore the Roman Empire

Based in Seoul, Col­in Marshall writes and broad­casts on cities, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His projects include the Sub­stack newslet­ter Books on Cities and the book The State­less City: a Walk through 21st-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall or on Face­book.