The several forms of sandal frames and displays are from information recovered at the Zueberbueler shelter. As is obvious these were footwear that used straps, and the term sandal is fitting. This method of retaining protection on the feet is still in use.In the January issue of the National Geographic a suggestion of shoes that, while of a similar age, that are better called slip-ons. Other than their end use, there seems to be little they have in common. The Texas artifacts are made using the leaves of the Lechugilla plant. First a frame is formed and to this was added material and method similar to check weaving. To retain the weaving to the foot, a system of straps were employed. The Missouri "shoes" were the result of using plant fibers, and skin. The fibers seem to have worked into strands. These strands were made in to cords, samples displayed show right hand twist of the yarns. Additional strands were braided and employed as straps. The body of the shoe seems to have been constructed by a check weaving. At the Texas site a single shard of cord check weaving was recovered. Weaving with cords did not seem to be one of their crafts. The recovery and comparison of over 50 sandals at the Missouri site and over 400 at the Texas site, is sufficient to show they are not related and their style was an accepted craft at their location. Lets go for a visit at the National Geographic. A footnote: Recently it has been learned that sandals recovered in the state of Oregon were made in a similar manner as to the ones offered by the National Graphic. In Oregon fiber cords were used to form sandals which blend in with the N.G. Sandals. Only in Oregon the date offered is some 5,000 years earlier, 9,350 BP. It now seems the trip by foot, even with sandals on took some 5 millennium to make. And as suggested in our earlier page, they walked around Texas.
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