Veldmeijer André J. Footwear in Ancient Egypt: the Medelhavsmuseet collection

National Museums of World Culture, 2014 . — 74 p.Although sandals are mentioned in many popular accounts about ancient Egypt this is usually only in passing and not based on studies. Actually, the study of footwear, a term preferred rather than ‘sandal’ as in ancient Egypt there are more types of footwear than only sandals as we will see, only took off several years ago with the Ancient Egyptian Footwear Project (AEFP). This Project has a multidisciplinary and holistic approach, including a large sample from various collections around the world as well as from (recent) excavations. The Project’s focus is on the archaeological specimen, but it also investigates how footwear was depicted on tomb and temple walls. The written record, such as papyri and ostraca, is studied too and, at the end of the project, the information of these three parts is to be combined. Material from all periods are being studied, and although the focus is more or less on Pharaonic material, still, post-Pharaonic material is investigated including Ottoman material from for example Qasr Ibrim. The main goal of the Project is to get a better insight in footwear in all its aspects (among which are manufacturing technology and personal identity).