An excavation in Oxford, England, conducted by Oxford Archaeology in advance of the expansion of a shopping center, has turned up a large number of leather and wood objects dating to the fourteenth century, when the site was occupied by buildings associated with the Greyfriars religious order. The artifacts were unusually well preserved because they were buried beneath the water table. Among the finds are around 100 leather shoes, a leather bag, a leather money purse, and a wooden bowl. “Somebody seems to have been saving up worn-out shoes,” says Ben Ford, the excavation’s project manager. “Maybe it was a cobbler working at the friary.”
Friars' Leather Shop
SHARE:
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2021
Laws of the Land
(University of Bristol)
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2021
The Age of Glass
(Jason Urbanus; Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral)
Digs & Discoveries March/April 2021
An Enduring Design
Courtesy Durham University
Artifacts November/December 2020
Illuminated Manuscript
(National Trust/Mike Hodgson)
-
Features November/December 2015
Where There's Smoke...
Learning to see the archaeology under our feet
(Vincent Scarano on behalf of Connecticut College) -
Letter From Wales November/December 2015
Hillforts of the Iron Age
Searching for evidence of cultural changes that swept the prehistoric British Isles
(Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales) -
Artifacts November/December 2015
Viking Sword
(Ellen C. Holthe, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo) -
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2015
The Second Americans?
(ShutterStock)