A Couple of Sandals

[PaleIO]

I know most if the country doesn't have the dry climate necessary to preserve plant based artifacts. I wish I had found these but they were inherited from a very well respected family member and I was asked to keep them because of my passion for artifacts. I wanted to share a couple of them with t-net community and encourage anyone that might have similar items to add them to the post. Not sure if any age on them but I believe the are Anasazi in origin. They were great basket weavers and used that talent for many other things including sandals. Yucca had many uses...

 

[Older The Better]

Awesome, it’s amazing the things preserved out there.

 

[southfork]

They don't look very comfortable but a lot better than blazing hot rock and cactus spines . Great artifacts

 

[kentucky Quinn]

Those are wonderful! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Twitch]

Very cool. Spent 5 years living in New Mexico and never quite found any sandals.... any idea on age?

 

[PaleIO]

Very cool. Spent 5 years living in New Mexico and never quite found any sandals.... any idea on age?

The Anasazi people dissapeared around 1250 so sometime before that. Still amazing to me that survived that many years.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Very nice and rare artifacts.

I have a piece of one from a cave in Utah that I got as gift for my states collection.

 

[Garscale]

Those are amazing. Great improvement over stepping on obsidian shards

 

[ArfieBoy]

At first glance they remind me of the "Fort Rock sandals" found in southern Oregon.

 

[PaleIO]

Here is another. The first two are much wider and i have always wondered if they had different sets for different purposes such as snow or maybe each maker had his own style. I am always impressed at the ability to make something out of nothing....

 

[old digger]

Now that is awesome! I also read about those that ArfieBoy mentioned. It is amazing how they have lasted so many years.

 

[joshuaream]

Neat finds, I've had a couple of them over the years, some from the Southwest and some pieces of them from a cave site in Kentucky. Relatively similar designs have been found in lots of places (not always yucca.) I also had a pair of modern ones we bought on vacation down in Mexico, made from yucca. They were surprisingly comfortable and protected your feet from hot sand, pavement, glass, etc. just as well as normal flip flops. (They started smelling a bit funky after they got wet so the wife tossed them.)

Given the right preservation, once they dry out they'll basically last forever. They used to be common finds, now they are collectable. One of first expeditions after Casas Grandes was rediscovered was led by a Swedish explorer, they used the sandals as kindling to start campfires.

 

[antmike915]

Very cool paleo

 

[PaleIO]

This one is a much tighter woven patern

 

[unclemac]

I know a spot in Nevada where a pair of those lay under a rock in a canyon....