hipposandal
- Museum number
- 1864,0318.43
- Description
-
Iron hipposandal (temporary horse-shoe). The wings are unusually narrow and sweep forward well beyond the toe. The sole has an egg shaped hole in it, with a horeseshoe shaped iron strip welded around it on the underside of the sole.
- Dimensions
-
Length: 216 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Manning 1985
Egg- or kite-shaped holes in the soles are a fairly common feature of Type 3 hipposandals; they have the advantage of substantially reducing the amount of metal needed for the shoe. The hole is produced by forging the sole and wings as a strip with the rear hook at one end, and then bending it round and welding the free end to the body of the sole. Although the horseshoe-shaped tread of the present example is unique, others show the remains of grooves on the sole which probably fulfilled a similar function.
Examples with solid soles come from London (Guildhall Museum Catalogue 1908, 59, no. 53, and Museum of London); Verulamium, in mid-second-century contexts (Manning 1972, 171, nos 27 & 28); Silchester (Reading Museum); and Arrington Bridge, Cambridgeshire, where two examples were found with coins of Antoninus Pius (Proc. Cambridge Antiquarian Soc. 45 (1952), 61, pl. XII). Ones with an opening in the sole can be quoted from a fourth- or fifth-century context at Verulamium (Wheeler and Wheeler 1936, 221, pl. LXIII, B, 3 & 4); and from the Blackburn Mill Hoard, a particularly important example as it has spikes on the sole, presumably for use in frozen conditions rather than merely for the protection of the animal's foot (Piggott 1953, 45, fig. 12, B21). Others come from Germany, for example from Pfunz (O.R.L. B VII Kastell 73 (1914), 41, Taf. XVII, 19).
- Location
- On display (G49/dc16)
- Acquisition date
- 1864
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1864,0318.43
