How Old Are Your Shoes?

Jeffrey Williams Arizona Daily Wildcat Prehistoric sandals made by Native Americans of the Southwest and the Great Basin are on display at the Arizona State Museum. The Walking Through the Desert exhibit features part of the museum's collection of 1,200 sandals.

Walking the Desert primarily features sandals from the Anasazi Basketmaker people of the Southwest. Other Anasazi crafts, such as cookware, are included in the exhibit, but the sandals, from areas in Nevada, Utah and Northeastern Arizona, steal the show.

The sandals in this exhibit have been excellently preserved, whether stored in caves or buried beneath the extremely dry soil of the southwest. In at least one case, a sandal was preserved by the encrustation of salt in a mine.

One of the intentions of Walking the Desert is to juxtapose the sandals of ancient craftsmanship with those of contemporary style.

The oldest shoe in the museum is thought to have been made between 700 and 3900 B.C. Like many of the sandals, it is woven from yucca fibers, an obvious forbear of the modern sandal. Featured alongside the prehistoric shoes are modern sandals, like those from Mexico made from used car tires.

One display-case poses the question, "How do your sandals stack up?" Behind the glass is a modern Teva¨ sandal and a list of comparisons with the footwear of the Anasazi people. The list poses the aesthetic question, "Both prehistoric sandals and Teva¨ sandals sport stylish designs. Which do you prefer?" The list also suggests that the modern shoe may be worse for the wear after thousands of years than the ancient shoes are now.

This is only one of several creative displays in Walking the Desert.. There is information on the process of weaving these sandals and a display about the yucca plant, whose long, sturdy fibers provided raw material for the Basketmakers.

Of particular interest is a pair of very tiny sandals, the purpose of which is uncertain. Some appear to have been worn by children, while others are too small to have been worn at all, perhaps serving simply as miniatures.

Walking the Desert is so thorough in its treatment of the sandal subject that few questions remain, except perhaps the simplest one: why sandals?

Curator of Public Programs Bruce Hilpert has an answer. Regarding sandals as a history record, he said, "People rarely think of them."

Shoes, according to Hilpert, are something that everyone can relate to, although we may not think of them in the ancient context.

"You get up, you put them on, you would be miserable without them," Hilpert said.

Walking the Desert is most effective where it makes the connection between the modern role of shoes, and their place in Basketmaker culture. In this exhibit, the museum preserves this relationship.