So in some minor exciting news, I think I figured out how Neo-Assyrian women's shoes worked. A short thread. 1/9

I've been needing to scratch my #reenactment itch, and ages ago I decided to try and recreate one of the outfits of the attendants in the #BanquetScene of #Ashurbanipal 2/9

On first glance, I was like 'oh, this should be pretty simple', as the dresses seem like a simple shift of some sort, like the peplos dresses of ancient Greek women, with some sort of underdress. 3/9

Second glance was the 'oh shit, I need a fuck ton of jewellery, and I have no idea how to source any of that....' realisation. So I decided to focus on the shoes. 4/9

The shoes made zero sense. Were they leather socks? How did they do up? What the Hell is on their heel? How far up did they go? Was the weird heel thing leather or metal? 5/9

Basically, I decided to put off the whole project until inspiration struck, as the primary sources don't exactly provide much help...6/9

Then I found out about the Iranian Salt Mine Mummies. One dates to the #Achaemenid period, so not Neo-Assyrian, but one of his boots was PERFECTLY preserved by the salt. …https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.helsinki.fi/docview/1674447680/fulltextPDF/1CF0CEF988A94543PQ/1?accountid=11365 7/9

On the 3D reconstruction, you can see an almost EXACT copy of the Neo-Assyrian woman's shoe!!!! I was literally so happy I could have cried!!! 8/9

So now I can safely assume the shoes were boots of some sort, and the weird thing over the heel was extra reinforcing leather, and they had a small area of lacing over the ankle at the front. Now to order some leather from somewhere and get cracking! 9/9