2000-year-old ladies shoe

... and a modern reproduction:

"This shoe is one of two quite similar finds (no.s 220 and 221) from one of the wells at the Saalburg Castle. The cut and decoration of the uppers is so similar, yet different, that it seems likely that they came from the same workshop if not from the same hand. 

I have always admired those shoes and finally got around to make a pair of one of them. The decoration is an elegant mix of circular holes, triangles, squares, darts and slits. It is very well possible that the decoration was further enhanced by stitching with coloured thread and bands woven through the slits as suggested by Marquita Volken."

Via for the top photo.  Some more info:

"On the Taunus ridge northwest of Bad Homburg, Hesse, Germany lies the Saalburg Roman fort. It dates to 90AD and served as a linear border fortification... Sometime during the 19th century it was rediscovered, excavated, then later fully reconstructed. It’s now a UNESCO World Heritage site... The Saalburg Museum contains many Roman relics, including shoes..."