The Art of the Shoe. Marie-Josèphe Bossan

the first great civilizations flourishing in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the 4th millennium BC arose the three basic types of footwear: the shoe, the boot, and the sandal. An archeological team excavating a temple in the city of Brak (Syria) in 1938 unearthed a clay shoe with a raised toe. Dating over 3,000 years before the birth of Christ, it proves that this city shared features with the Sumerian civilization of Ur in Mesopotamia: raised-tipped shoes are depicted on Mesopotamian seals of the Akkadian era around 2600 BC. Distinguished from Syrian models by a much higher tip and embellished with a pompom, in Mesopotamia this type of shoe became the royal footwear of the king. The raised-toe form is attributable to the rugged terrain of the mountain conquerors that introduced it. After its adoption by the Akkadian kingdom, the form spread to Asia Minor where the Hittites made it a part of their national costume. It is frequently depicted in low-reliefs, such as the Yazilikaya sanctuary carvings dating to 1275 BC. Seafaring Phoenicians helped spread the pointed shoe to Cyprus, Mycenae, and Crete, where it appears on palace frescoes depicting royal games and ceremonies. Cretans are also depicted wearing raised-tipped ankle boots in the painted decorations of Rekhmire’s tomb (Egypt 18th dynasty, 1580–1558 BC), indicating contact between Crete and Egypt during this era. The Mesopotamian empire of Assyria dominated the ancient east from the 9th to the 7th century BC and erected monuments whose sculptures depict the sandal and the boot. Their sandal is a simplified shoe composed of a sole and straps. Their boot is tall, covering the leg; a type of footwear associated with horsemen. From the middle of the 6th century to the end of the 4th century BC, the Persian dynasty, founded by Cyrus the Great II around 550 BC, gradually established a homogeneous culture in the ancient east. Processional bas-reliefs carved by sculptors of the Achaemenidian kings offer a documentary record of the period’s costume and footwear.

      5. Cylindrical seal and its stamp. Akkad Dynasty, Mesopotamia, around 2340–2200 BC. Height: 3.6 cm. Louvre Museum, Paris.

      6. “Lion put to death by the King,” low-relief from the Palace of Assurbanipal at Nineveh, 638–630 BC, British Museum, London.

      In addition to images of boots, there are shoes made of supple materials and of leather shown completely covering the foot and closing at the ankle with laces. For a deeper understanding of how the shoe evolved from its origins to the present day, it is important to look at ancient civilizations in their historical context. Additionally, an analysis of the primary biblical texts will shed new light on the subject and give greater relevance to the history of the shoe.

      7. Sandals maker, fresco relief. 18th Dynasty, 1567–1320 BC. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

      Ancient Egypt

      Ancient Egypt was the home of the first sandals. This form of flat shoe with straps arose in response to Egypt’s climate and geography.

      King Narmer’s Palette from around 3100 BC reveals that a servant called a “sandal bearer” walked behind the sovereign carrying the royal sandals on his forearms, indicating the importance henceforth attached to the shoe in ceremonial garb.

      Although often depicted barefoot in Egyptian wall paintings, men and women also wore sandals. Egyptian sandals were made of leather, woven straw, strips of palm or papyrus leaves or from the rushes and reeds that grew in the marshes. The Pharaoh and the socially prominent had them made of gold, though sandals were a luxury item for everyone. Tomb excavations have revealed that this object, originally strictly utilitarian, had a social function. The sandal maintained continuity of form throughout Pharaonic civilization and lasted until the Coptic era of Egyptian Christianity. When the pharaoh entered the temple, or when his subjects celebrated the cult of the dead in funeral chapels, they removed their sandals at the sanctuary’s entrance, a custom later adopted by Muslims upon entering a mosque. The ritual demonstrates the strong relationship that exists between the shoe and the sacred, a relationship that is also established by specific biblical passages, which will be discussed below. The advent in Egypt of the raised-tip sandal in the second millennium BC is probably a Hittite influence. It is the precursor of the poulaine, or piked shoe, an eccentric medieval fashion introduced to Europe from the East by the Crusades. When sandals are among the items packed for the mummy’s afterlife, they are placed in chests or illustrated on horizontal bands decorating the painted interior of the wooden sarcophagi. Evidently, their role was prophylactic.

      Texts from the era of the pyramids allude to and reflect the wishes of the dead “to walk in white sandals along the beautiful paths of heaven where the blessed roam.”

      8. Wooden sandals inlayed with gold, treasure of Tutankhamen. 18th Dynasty, Thebes. Cairo Museum, Cairo.

      9. Egyptian sandal of plant fibers. Bally Museum, Schönenwerd, Switzerland.

      The Bible: The Shoe in the Old Testament

      The earliest written evidence of shoes is considered to be that found in the Bible, although research remains to be done with Chinese, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian texts.

      As a rule, Biblical characters wear sandals, whether they are God’s chosen ones (the Hebrews), their allies, or enemies, which affirms the Near Eastern origin of this footwear type from earliest antiquity. The Old Testament rarely mentions the design and decoration of the sandal. Apart from its role as an invaluable aid to walking, which is mainly an issue concerning the lives of the Saints, the sandal plays an important symbolic role. Biblical shoe symbolism can be analyzed in its different contexts, which include the removal of shoes in holy places, the shoe in military expeditions, legal actions, and everyday rituals, as well as the shoe as an accessory of seduction when dressing a female foot.

      In the most famous example of removing one’s shoes in a holy place, the vision of the burning bush, God orders Moses to take off his shoes: “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground” (The Pentateuch, Exodus, III, 5).

      The situation repeats itself when the Hebrews come upon the entrance to the Promised Land, as recorded in the Book of Joshua: “And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, ‘Are You for us or for our adversaries?’ So He said, ‘No, but as Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.’ And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, ‘What does my Lord say to His servant?’ Then the Commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, ‘Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy’” (Joshua, 5:13–15).

      The order given to Joshua is identical to that given to Moses. Shoes figure in another story from Joshua. The kings, finding themselves beyond the river Jordan, formed a coalition to fight against Joshua and Israel, but the Gibeonites wanted to ally themselves with Israel at any price. So the Gibeonites planned a ruse that would make Israel think they came from a distant land:

      “And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended, old and patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves” (Joshua 9:3). Dressed in this fashion they went to find Joshua, who asked them, “Who are you, and where do you come from?” They replied, “From a very far country your servants have come… And these wineskins which we filled were new, and see, they are torn; and these our garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey” (Joshua, 9:5, 8, 13).

      These old sandals contrast with the ones mentioned in Moses’ last sermon when he says to his people: “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet” (Deuteronomy, 29:5).

      The Old Testament mentions footwear in a number of military contexts. The wars against the Philistines are the setting for the Books of Samuel. The rich iconography of the famous battle of David and Goliath, pointing to a much later date than the event itself, which took place between 1010 and 970 BC, usually shows