Hypodemata¹. Sewn by hand with a linen thread. Vegetable tanned cattle hide, rubbed with linseed oil. Modelled after iconographic sources and archaeological findings from the Middle East.

Over the knee boots were used by the Byzantine horsemen. The fact that infantry used high boots (over the knee boots ruckled during the march) was confirmed in i.a. Pracepta militaria by Nikephoros Phokas². They could often have a wooden sole³.

Reconstruction photo.
(Shoes made by Ł. Kostrzewski).

I. Icon, St. Theodore and Demetrius, Hermitage, 11/12^th century.
II. Codex Græcus Matritensis Ioannis Skyllitzes, National Museum in Madrid, 12/13^th century.
III. St. George, fresco in the church of Panagia Forbiotissa in Asinou, 12/13^th century.

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Sandals. The servula type. Reconstruction made on the basis of a various iconography from this period as well as archaeological monuments from the museum in Cairo (A), dated around 1100 A.D. Vegetable tanned cattle leather, hand-sewn with a strap at an angle of 45 degrees (as in original monuments), pattern engraved.

Simple people, shepherds, but also saints were usually depicted in this type of footwear

 Reconstruction photo.

(A)