Medieval Toddler Boot Found in Switzerland

News March 29, 2019

(Photo by Marquita Volken/Office de la culture and Gentle Craft)
SHARE:
11450
(Photo by Marquita Volken/Office de la culture and Gentle Craft)

SAINT-URSANNE, SWITZERLAND—A fragment of a medieval shoe thought to have belonged to a young toddler has been discovered in the Swiss canton of Jura, The Local reports. Decorated with a foliage motif and geometric patterns, the boot was uncovered during excavations in the historic town of Saint-Ursanne. The fragment, which is made of a mix of goat and cow leather and measures roughly 7 inches by 5 inches, survived due to wet soil conditions under the town’s cobble streets. According to researchers from the Shoe Museum in Lausanne, the shoe would have been an ankle-high boot with clasps made of leather buttons. The style was popular in the second half of the fourteenth century and is unique in Switzerland, though three similar pairs have been found in London, and two in the Netherlands. To read more about the archaeology of medieval shoes, go to “Die With Your Boots On.

  • Features January/February 2019

    A Dark Age Beacon

    Long shrouded in Arthurian lore, an island off the coast of Cornwall may have been the remote stronghold of early British kings

    Read Article
    (Skyscan Photolibrary/Alamy Stock Photo)
  • Letter from Leiden January/February 2019

    Of Cesspits and Sewers

    Exploring the unlikely history of sanitation management in medieval Holland

    Read Article
    (Photo by BAAC Archeologie en Bouwhistorie)
  • Artifacts January/February 2019

    Neo-Hittite Ivory Plaque

    Read Article
    (Copyright MAIAO, Sapienza University of Rome/Photo by Roberto Ceccacci)
  • Digs & Discoveries January/February 2019

    The Case of the Stolen Sumerian Antiquities

    Read Article
    (© Trustees of the British Museum)