Our next Nalbound Object of the Week is one of the Ancient Puebloan socks from what is now known as the Southwestern United States. There is not a lot of detail available about this sock. What differentiates it from the other socks found in Ancient Pueblo contexts is the very interesting detail of its material.

Photo: Anne Marie Decker 7 July 2019
Object: Ancient Puebloan Sock
Description: A dark brown above ankle sock with a light brown tie at the ankle laced between the stitches. According to the Bata Shoe Museum, it may have been worn alone or with sandals.1 However, unlike several in the Arizona State museum, this one is entirely Simple Looping and is not worked off a braided or woven sole.
Dated to: c. 1200 CE, 13th century CE2
Find location: Southwestern United States3
Material: Human Hair4
Stitch(es) used: Z-crossed Simple Looping, F1 O (Stitch determination by Anne Marie Decker)
Inventory number: P89.231
Current location: Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto, Canada
Link to museum catalog or other data: Scroll through the online exhibition about socks to find the Ancient Puebloan sock: https://batashoemuseum.ca/socks/ (Click the next link 11 times)
Some sources in which more information can be found:
Arizona State University has a nice article on related Ancestral Pueblo Shoe–Socks, including some really lovely photos of some in their collection.
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- The exhibition label in 2019 and https://batashoemuseum.ca/socks/ ↩︎
- The exhibition label in 2019 and https://batashoemuseum.ca/socks/ ↩︎
- The exhibition label in 2019 and https://batashoemuseum.ca/socks/ ↩︎
- The exhibition label in 2019 and https://batashoemuseum.ca/socks/ ↩︎
Any way I can enlarge the picture to see the details? Thanks.