A small step for man, a long stride for cave man

From the beginning of the man human, it was to be more than a new set of teeth, a straighter spine, even the making of a few stone tools. Even those niceties we like to offer as the human side of man, along with love, compassion, and a few others.

One thing we do know about man is his ability to advance. The marks he has left upon the earth are more that a few impressions left in mud. We know, that in time his marks were to be left upon even the moon.

As man began the Archaic period, some ten thousand years in the past, he began to leave a trail of accomplishments, deeds, that man the creature had never even dreamed of. Yes, we know little of the man before this new era, we learn more often, what he was lacking.

We know from the Zueberbueler shelter that man, of the archaic period, had started several new crafts. What may have been, an important first, was weaving. A small advancement by our twentieth century raging pace of advancement, but a marvellous one for man at that time.

A step that required over three million years to take. Was evolution's first biped man, a true man human or was he only a man, a new species of creature?

Sandal making is one of those first gains man made at the beginning of the Archaic period. Only a form of weaving, but one he had not been able to do the first few million years of his evolution. Weaving was not the result of better suited hands, larger brain, or many of the changes man had been through.

The mere interlocking of bits of grass would not have stymied man the human for this seemingly endless era of pre human development. As simplistic as weaving is, it was beyond the creature man.

At the Zueberbueler shelter, the recovery of man's first sandals accompanied the first evidence of weaving. The start was as simple as it was short lived. The solutions to allow man to accomplish successful weaving also led to improvements in the sandals he made.

Here, in this display, are several forms of the early craft. The Pecos museum is the home of over 400 sandal weavings artifacts. The first archaic sandals? Three were recovered at the Zueberbueler site, similar to one recovered by the University of Texas A&M. at Hinds cave shelter. Carbon dating by the university placed their sample in the area of 8,200 BP (before present era).

Amidst the large supply, available to the Pecos, there were over sixty items that must be placed in a separate category. These we refer to as the miniature or practice sandals.

The term miniature is commonly used, as many are so small as be obviously not intended for use. Still a few were large but their workmanship made them useless. A second clue was that only one showed evidence of having straps placed on it.

The Pecos offers these in four parts. These are the four forms used to make them. The U frame was the more common form with almost forty of the group using this form of frame.

The V frame was next in popularity, but only a small number when compared to the U frame. The V V frame and W frame were only represented by a few attempts to assemble. This seems to be odd data, in the report of full size adult sandals, it is the W frame that is employed.

In addition to the graphic illustrations we offer videos of full size sandal sets, one set adult and one child.

To start your trip into the world of man's first shoes just select the icon and click.