Anasazi Square Toe-Square Heel Twined Sandals: Construction and Cultural Attributes

The use of “soft” X-ray radiography in determining hidden construction characteristics in fiber sandals

“…Most Anasazi sandal research has been focused on this type of sandal, that although unified by a basic fabric construction method (twining), was composed of a variety of shapes, tie systems, and construction sequences (Kidder and Guernsey, 1919;Deegan, 1992Deegan, , 1996Deegan, , 1998Webster and Hays-Gilpin, 1994;Talge, 1995;Hays-Gilpin et al, 1998). Braided (or plaited) sandals seem to have been the most common type of sandal during the Pueblo III period (w1100e1300 AD), yet examples have also been found in Basketmaker and early Puebloan contexts (Hays-Gilpin et al, 1998).…”

“…Throughout this time they produced fiber sandals, most of which were made of yucca. Due to differences in embedded technological choices, Anasazi sandals were composed of a number of types based on differing morphological characteristics and construction sequences (Deegan, 1993;Hays-Gilpin et al, 1998). Dating of Basketmaker or Anasazi sandals is problematic, in that the time periods into which they have been grouped have been assigned almost entirely through cross-dating.…”

Craft economies in the north American Southwest

“…58-59). Thus far, studies of sandals and baskets from Anasazi rockshelters on the Colorado Plateau (e.g., Christenson, 1993;Deegan, 1992Deegan, , 1993Deegan, , 1995Deegan, , 1996Hays-Gilpin et al, 1998;Kankainen, 1995;Morris, 1995;Webster and Hays-Gilpin, 1994) are oriented more toward the technology of their manufacture than the organization of their production. Technological studies of sandals and baskets offer Southwestern archaeologists the opportunity to interpret social boundaries, if not ethnicity (Stark, 1998); such analyses should be a priority of future work on these materials.…”