This week’s Nalbound Object of the Week is an Egyptian Sock that is currently located in the National Museum of Ireland. Early online photos of the sock were taken at such an angle that the toe split was not visible. This led to mistaken impression that this sock was the only adult cross-knit looping (Coptic stitch) nalbound sock with a single toe box. I was lucky enough to come across this sock on display in April of 2014, so I had seen in person that it did have a split toe to accommodate sandals. In fact, out of the 49 or so cross-knit looped nalbound Egyptian socks we have images of and are whole enough to tell, only the tiniest baby socks for not yet mobile infants do not have split toes.
Object: Woolen Sock
Description: A now light brown wool sock for the left foot with a split at the ankle and ties still remaining. There is a decorative welt around the ankle where the heel cup shifts to the ankle. Height 9cm, width 8cm, Length 22 cm.1 The sock arrived at the National Museum of Ireland as part of the distributions the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1914.2
Dated to: Graeco-Roman Period: Roman Period3
Find location : el-Sheikh Ibada/Antinoopolis, Egypt4
Material: Wool5
Stitch(es) used: S-crossed Cross-knit Looping (as determined from photographs by Anne Marie Decker)
Inventory number: (A&I)1914:205
Current location: National Museum of Ireland
Link to museum catalog or other data: https://www.museum.ie/collections/collection/antiquity-203733/?return=%2Fcollections%2Fcollection%2F%3Fterm%3Dsock
Some sources in which more information can be found:
https://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/record.aspx?id=2619
Rose-Beers, Kristine. (2023). The Threads that Bind: Evidence of the Early Codex Structure in Chester Beatty’s Papyri. DOI 10.1515/9783110781304-009.
Photographs:
There are two additional views of the sock available on the National Museum of Ireland’s website. The view that obscures the split toe can be seen on The Global Egyptian Museum.org site.
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- https://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/record.aspx?id=2619 ↩︎
- https://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/record.aspx?id=2619 ↩︎
- https://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/record.aspx?id=2619 ↩︎
- https://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/record.aspx?id=2619 and https://www.museum.ie/collections/collection/antiquity-203733/?return=%2Fcollections%2Fcollection%2F%3Fterm%3Dsock ↩︎
- https://www.museum.ie/collections/collection/antiquity-203733/?return=%2Fcollections%2Fcollection%2F%3Fterm%3Dsock ↩︎
