Unique 500-year-old wooden shoes found in Dutch cesspool

A unique wooden shoe has been discovered in a 15th-century cesspool in the Dutch city of Alkmaar. Although wooden shoes are a symbol of Dutch culture, only 44 have been found in excavations in the Netherlands and Belgium. Most of them are newer and in poor condition. The shoes are made of birch, the only wooden shoe in the Dutch archaeological record made of birch, a tree that does not grow in the Netherlands.

High-heeled clogs were found in some, but the wood was well preserved due to the waterlogged, anaerobic conditions of the cesspit. After thoroughly cleaning the shoe fragments, the archaeologists reassembled it and it was essentially complete. It has a double heel, an elegant touch not found in more common rustic styles. Its quality and its context in an urban environment suggest that this is not a working clog, a typical example of Dutch clogs, as used by farmers, but a shoe for everyday wear in the city. Shoe size is approximately modern European size 36 (US women’s shoe size 5.5).

It’s fitting, indeed, that the sinkhole was discovered in November during construction of an underground waste container. It was used from approximately 1450 to 1558. At that time, almost every home or townhouse had a cesspit, which was used for human waste but also for food and household waste. This is how things like shoes can finally become one.

Another unique wooden artifact was found in this sinkhole: a grain measure, a round, shallow bucket used to measure grain. It was made of thin oak and had survived the sinkhole almost intact. Only five grain measure fragments have previously been found in the Netherlands and Belgium. This is the only nearly complete medieval Dutch grain measure ever found. Before this discovery, we only knew what they looked like from images.

Blockages and particle loads will be stabilized, preserved and further studied. If possible, they will be restored, the broken pieces reassembled through non-invasive methods, and the items put on display.