Low and medium heeled women's leather shoes (based on materials from Russian archaeological complexes of Omsk Irtysh region)

Purpose. In the course of archaeological studies of the Russian settlements in the Omsk Irtysh region during New times, we have obtained a representative collection of leather shoes, their parts and fragments. A comprehensive analysis of this collection made it possible to identify ten types of shoes, which were common in everyday life of the rural population in the 17th-18th centuries. One of the main types of women's leather shoes were brogues. In order to reconstruct their shape, we developed a special technique which can help archaeologists in the study of different types of shoes. The technique includes identification of diagnostic features for each type of shoes, systematization of the entire collection, study of structural details in terms of materials and design, identification of assembly technologies, shape reconstruction, creation of a graphic model and full-scale layout, which demonstrates the standard for the type of shoes under analysis, and description of the standard and the entire collection of its type. Finally, we analyzed the use of shoes worn. The technology is useful for reconstructing such an important part of outfit as footwear. We analyzed the material, design, and manufacturing technology of brogues from our collection, in particular, women's leather brogues. We compared the items from the collection with other previously identified types of footwear from similar sites and other collections of archaeological leather shoes of Western Siberia and traced common and special features. A full-scale and graphic reconstruction of the shape of the footwear was carried out. We described the origin of this type of formation, the time of its existence, and the place of brogues in the costume complex of Russian population in the area studied. Results. The brogues studied had low or medium heels. Our analysis of the archaeological material revealed eight stages in the process of making them. Our observations during the reconstruction revealed a high level of standardization and a slight variability of features in manufacturing footwear in general and the specific type we studied in particular. Our technology allows us to conclude that women's brogues from our collection had analogues in the archaeological collections from Tara and Mangazeya sites. Conclusion. The brogues from our collection can be considered festive, worn during the summer-autumn season. According to its origin, this type of footwear is associated with the Turkic-Persian world, which was influenced by European traditions of shoemaking. In European Russia, brogues with low or medium heels were popular in the 14th-16th centuries. In Siberia, judging by the collections of Tara and Mangazeya, they were used during the 17th century. Archaeological materials allow us to conclude that this type of footwear was popular in the 17th century.