Radiocarbon dates and Anglo-Saxon style shoes from the northern Netherlands

Abstract

ln the 19th and early 20th century, dwelling mounds (terpen) along the coast of the northern Netherlands (provinces Groningen and Friesland) were levelled, leading to rhe collection of large numbers of artefacts from late-prehistoric and early-historic times. Amongst the finds are 13 leather shoes from 6 different sites, all now in the Fries Museum Leeuwarden. Some of these shoes were clearly Roman imports: multi-layer soles, sometimes nailed, and with good parallels within the Roman Empire. But a large group of rather similar, single piece shoes seemed to have little relation to either Roman carbotinse or to local prehistoric sryles, though there are some links to shoes found in the bogs of north western Germany and Denmark. As there was no accurate dating evidence, a systematic programme of radiocarbon dating was initiated in 2007. It took several years to collect the funds, but eventually produced some very surprising results.