The oldest bast slippers in Europa
Origin: Sipplingen on Lake Constance
Material: lime bast
Date: circa 2900 BC
Lender: Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, Gaienhofen-Hemmenhofen
Shoes – A sign of the times
Foot in a sandal
Found in: Athens, Greece
Material: marble
Date: 1 – 2nd century AD
Lender: Staatliche Museen Berlin, Antiquity Collection
Shoes write history
Humans have been protecting their feet with shoes for thousands of years. Over time, shoes have taken on various forms and functions. Therefore, the history of shoes is also a history of human ingenuity.
Shoe fashions mirror culture and lifestyle as well as the political, social and economic conditions of a particular time period. The fact that shoes do not always have to be practical is evident in fashion bloopers and some people's obsession with shoes.
The Neolithic Age
Bast slippers found in siltAbout 5,000 years ago, people lived in pile dwellings and wetland settlements on the banks of large lakes. They farmed, raised livestock and fished and they wore sandals made out of bast from the lime tree. We know about their footwear because the wet soil has preserved this organic material.
Roman Antiquity
Ancient shoe specialists
Influenced by earlier ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean and of the Near East, the Romans developed a very specialized form of shoemaking. This generated, among other things, a multitude of types of shoes, and shoemakers already began to make a distinction between right and left shoes. The shoe type as well as the color and decoration were indicators of the social status of its wearer.
Replica of a pair of opanak with spurs
Origin: Wijster Settlement, the Netherlands
Material: leather
Date: 375 - 425 AD
Lender: Drents-Museum, Assen, the Netherlands
