Socks are not a common archaeological find but sometimes we uncover some pretty cool examples of socks from the past. In this post, you will find the YouTube video exploring the archaeology of lost socks, and a full video transcript (with relevant sources and links).
YouTube Video
YouTube Video Transcript
Here, you will find the complete transcript of the video in the previous section with hyperlinked references/citations.
Intro
How many of us have lost a sock? Archaeologists face a similar issue with socks in the archaeological record. While socks aren’t a common find, we do have some pretty cool examples of socks from the past. We’ve even learned more about some socks in unexpected ways.
Hi! I’m Dr. Smiti Nathan, and I’m an archaeologist. In this video, we’re going to explore some of the lost socks of the archaeological record. So let’s get into it.
Egypt
Now as we mentioned, socks are not a common archaeological find. Generally speaking, textiles don’t preserve well over hundreds or thousands of years, especially in comparison to other materials such as ceramics. However, archaeologists have found socks at multiple ancient Egyptian sites. The arid climate in this region has helped organic materials preserve over a long period of time. To date, we actually have recovered over 110 socks from Romano-Coptic burials (i.e, the Late Roman Period 3rd-4th c CE and Byzantine Period 4th-7th c CE) in towns such as Oxyrhynchus and Antinoupolis, and surrounding regions.
All 110 socks were created using nalbinding. Nalbinding is a fiber technique where there’s a single needle with an eye, kind of like in sewing, and the entire length of the yarn is pulled through each loop as you nalbind. Nalbinding was common in many places across the world, especially Scandinavia, North Africa, Eastern Europe, and Western Asia. It’s actually thought to pre-date knitting and crocheting. We have examples of people using wool or flax yarn to nalbind items like hats, mittens, and socks.
One example from the Coptic period, so around the 4th-5th century C.E., is this Egyptian nalbound sock. It was likely unearthed during excavations from Akhmim, the main site for the worship of the Ancient Egyptian fertility god, Min. The National Museums Scotland acquired it in 1911 from a collector, but it’s not clear how this collector acquired the sock.
The context in which an artifact is recovered is crucial when interpreting the archaeological record, so we’re missing key data about this sock’s story.
Fortunately, textile experts and conservators can help us learn a few things about this sock so its story isn’t completely lost.
For example, this sock was created using four different colored wool yarns using a knot and loop technique.
Now before this sock was put on display in 2019, conservators examined it more closely and found some interesting things.
While to the naked eye, this sock might have looked like it was in okay shape, conservators found that the fibers were actually dry and friable, the shape flattened, and the sock itself was brittle.
To save this sock from further decay, one of the museum’s conservators, Miriam McLeod, decided to perform a painstaking conservation method. After carefully cleaning the sock, it was essentially “humidified” to give it a more “sock-like” shape and to help stabilize it.
Now, this is risky because if you don’t do this carefully, you risk the sock being in a worse state than when you started. Fortunately, this procedure was successful, and the sock can now be seen in the gallery, propped up straight with an internal mount. I highly recommend checking out Miriam’s blog post that goes into detail about how this lost sock was conserved.
Now when it comes to sock fashion, this sock also highlighted a typical design feature found in ancient Egyptian socks – a divided toe.
With this design, one “sock toe” would have most likely covered the big toe, and the other “sock toe” would have covered the other four toes. This type of sock was designed to be worn with thonged sandals. In fact, this brown woolen sock found at Antinoupolis and dating to 100-350 C.E. had a divided toe AND the impression of the sandal thong is still visible! So socks and sandals have been a thing for a while!
Tarim Basin
Now Egypt is not the only place in the world with arid conditions that help facilitate preservation. Let’s go to present-day northwestern China, specifically, the remote Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin. This area is one of the largest and driest deserts situated in one of the remotest places on Earth. This arid and cold environment, combined with the high salinity of the soils, creates almost an ideal environment for preserving organic remains, especially fabric. Many mummies have been found in and around this area, and some of them were buried in textiles that are extraordinarily well preserved.
For example, “Cherchen Man,” named for the village near where his tomb was discover, is a mummy dating to around 600 C.E. He was buried with clothing made from colorful dyes including a burgundy-colored wool coat and trousers, knee-high deerskin boots, and socks. These socks were made from felt fabric and had a multicolored stripe design. In fact, another mummy in that same burial, identified as female, had socks and boots similar to that of Cherchen Man.
Research in this region is still ongoing, and I hope we continue to learn more about the people who have lived here over time and the socks they wore!
Vikings
And while arid conditions help textiles preserve, there are other preservation conditions that might give a sock a chance to survive in the archaeological record. In particular, the waterlogged and anoxic soil conditions in York, England have resulted in well-preserved archaeological objects.
Let’s go to the Viking settlement of Coppergate in York, England. In the 1970s, archaeologists excavated in the backyard of a 10th-century C.E. wattle building and found something interesting – a single woollen sock.
Just like the Egyptian examples, this sock was created using the nalbinding technique. The wool was undyed except for the last row at the top of the ankle, which formed a thin red band using dye from a plant called madder.
We’re not sure if this red band created a decorative edge or if the sock would have continued into a longer stocking with a red leg.
This sock was also extremely worn and appears to have been patched up while the wearer was still using it! A large hole on the bottom of the sock was outlined in wool stitching where a rectangular patch most likely was adhered. The patch is no longer there and the researchers think it was most likely made from something like flax or another plant fibre, which deteriorates more easily.
The archaeological context of this find also offers further possible details on this socks’ story. While bone needles that could have been used to create this sock were recovered from the excavation at the settlement, this sock is the only example of nalbound fabric to have even been found in Anglo-Saxon England so far. Researchers think that his particular sock was most likely brought over from Scandinavia on the foot of a Viking.
Beoseon
So far, we’ve shared some examples of recovered lost socks in the archaeological record; however, as we mentioned before, they are not exactly a common find. Interestingly, we’ve been able to learn about past socks even when a physical sock isn’t present.
According to scholars who did a study on the hanbok – a type of traditional Korean attire, there was a type of traditional sock in Korea, known as Beoseon. These socks were designed with a pronounced seam, pointed toe, heel, ankle, and leg. It was worn for both fashionable and protective reasons. From our research, we saw that there was a lot of variety, traditions, and customs surrounding both the hanbok and beoseon and we highly recommend checking out this book for an English language overview of this attire.
The exact origins of the beoseon are unknown; however, some scholars note that the hanbok could date to as early as the Three Kingdom period (57 BC – 668 CE), based on artwork and archaeological finds.
If you look at these three artifacts and art, they could illustrate beoseon; however, the sources we looked at didn’t explicitly state this. They highlighted other features of the hanbok for these items.
However, we do have scholarly work identifying beoseon in artwork from the Joseon period (1392 – 1897 CE).
Let’s take a look at this portrait of county magistrate Seo Jiksu, who lived between 1735-1811 CE. He’s portrayed wearing a simple outfit of plain robes, black hat, and white beoseon.
In this iconic painting titled “A Village School” by Kim Hong-do, who lived from around 1745-1806 CE, the school children are wearing beoseon.
So artwork has been a crucial part of understanding the history of beoseon.
Piloi
And in addition to examining artwork, textual evidence is also helpful for understanding different types of garments worn by people.
Hesiod, the Ancient Greek poet, who was born around 750 BCE, gives us some potential insights in his poem, “Works and Days.” Now when you initially look at this poem it might not scream socks. The poem gives advice on family administration, moral conduct, and ancient Greek agricultural fieldwork.
However, Hesiod offers some clothing suggestions for different parts of the body when prepping for colder temperatures. When it comes to feet, here’s what he says according to one translation:
Now the word “felt” in this text has been translated from the ancient Greek word, “piloi”/πίλοις. It appears to be a form of the word “pilos/πῖλος”. Now this word seems to have slightly different meanings depending on the context. According to the notable Ancient Greek to English dictionary, TLG, in some instances, it could mean “anything made of felt” or in other instances, it could be “wool or hair wrought into felt, used as a lining for helmets and shoes.”
When translating ancient languages into modern languages, there are ideas and concepts that don’t translate 1:1 and we do our best to make sense of them.
So when it comes to Works and Day, are the piloi described socks?
What is a sock?
That’s a good question and I think it’s fair to step back and consider, “What is a sock?”
Let’s start with the origin and development of the English word. The English word sock can be traced back through Old English to ancient Greek and, perhaps, even earlier languages. The Old English word “socc” referred to a light slipper, which might have derived from the Latin word “soccus,” which was a low-heeled shoe. In turn, the Romans may have taken this word from the Ancient Greek “sykkhos,” referring to a kind of light sandal.
Now when we looked at current definitions of the word sock, we saw mentions about how the clothing could be made, where it’s placed on the body, and its relationship to shoes both in the past and present.
Now going back to piloi. Hesiod’s poem describes its position on the body and its material. While piloi and the ancient Greek word sykkhos are two different words, the Ancient Greeks, like many other people and languages, had multiple words to describe similar things. So maybe piloi could have described a sock of some sort, depending on the context.
While we haven’t found piloi in the archaeological record, there are other archaeological examples that make us stop and wonder if they were a sock. So we’re going to take a look at some of them, and you can decide whether they count as socks for you.
Ötzi
Let’s go to the Tyrolean Alps. In 1991, a body dating to the late Neolithic was discovered buried in the ice on the border between Austria and Italy. This body turned out to be a 5300-year-old mummy that has come to be known as Ötzi “the Iceman”.
Now we’ve chatted about Ötzi on this channel before because he’s helped us learn more about some topics like ancient diseases and plants.
Ötzi can also shed light on ancient clothing as he was found fully clothed. He was wearing garments composed of leather and hide from various animals, as well as braided grasses.
Ötzi was also found with protective footwear and he wore shoes composed of multiple layers. Dry grass was stuffed under string netting, made from lime tree bast, onto which an outer layer of deer hide with inward-facing fur was stitched. The shoes were then tied onto his feet using wild cow or auroch shoestrings. The South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology reconstructed his shoes and garments to give us a better idea of what they might have looked like.
So do you think the inner lime bast string netting stuffed with dry grass counts as a sock?
Ancestral Pueblo
Now let’s go to the Four Corners region of the southwest United States, which was the home to the Ancestral Pueblo people.
At the Arizona State Museum, conservator Gina Watkinson highlighted three examples of garments that we now refer to as “Shoe-socks” in a blog post.
These “Shoe-socks” were created by “looping technology” (also called “coiling without foundation” and “knotless netting). Cotton cordage was looped directly around the edges of a sandal. Animal hair was inserted into the cordage loops, most likely to provide warmth for the wearer’s feet.
Two shoe socks, thought to be a pair, were recovered from Two Mummy Cave Ruin in 1915 with the Museum estimating the artifacts date to be around 1100-1300 CE. Another shoe-sock they highlighted was found at Gourd Cave and had a plaited yucca sandal sole.
According to Watkinson, sandals without the attached sock-like upper portion are commonly found at ancestral Pueblo sites; however, shoe socks are less common.
So what do you think? Are these shoe-socks more shoe or sock?
Legwraps
For our last example of “Is it a sock?”, let’s look at leg wrapping. Leg wrapping is a widespread and long-standing tradition that existed in many forms around the globe. Single ribbons of fabric were wrapped around the foot and leg and have been called various things like puttees, foot wraps, vindingr, wickelbander, and winingas.
One example of these garments can be found in the early Medieval “Bayeux Tapestry,” which details events leading up to the 1066 CE Norman Conquest of England. Leg wraps were used into fairly recent times as well. For example, puttees were standard issue for military uniforms up through the 20th century C.E., including the British Khaki service uniform.
So what do you think? Do leg wrappings count as socks to you?
Outro
When we stop and think about what exactly a sock is, we come up with interesting archaeological examples that help us reflect more about this. And while socks have been lost for a variety of reasons throughout time, we have found ways to find them. Now if you’re curious to learn more about textile history and the archaeological record, check out this video here. That’s all for this video, and we’ll catch you in the next one.
Additional Reading + Resources
Explore the Bayeux Tapestry: https://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/the-bayeux-tapestry/discover-the-bayeux-tapestry/explore-online/
Credits
Brooke Norton: Co-Producer, Researcher, Scriptwriter
Noor Hanania: Lead Video Editor
Nada Sabbah: Thumbnail Design
Smiti Nathan: Director, Co-Producer, Support Video Editor, Researcher, Scriptwriter
Anya Gruber: Peer Reviewer
Sneh P. Patel: Peer Reviewer
Patreon Supporters
Thank you to our paid Patreon members for supporting the creation of this video:
Nancy Fulton & James D.
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