Dutch discover rare 500-year old wooden shoe

Archaeologist Silke Lange and a co-worker handle a 16th-century Dutch clog, which was found in a cesspool in Alkmaar, at a laboratory in Zaandam, Netherlands December 20, 2024. REUTERS

The Dutch are known worldwide for their wooden shoes, but the recent rare discovery of a 500-year-old one in the city of Alkmaar has shown just how widespread their use once was.

"It was found in a cesspit in an urban surrounding. So this is very special, because with wooden shoes you always think of farmers using wooden shoes during their work," archaeologist Silke Lange told Reuters.

"But actually this was found in an urban context. They were using this kind of footwear for daily use."

The wooden shoe was found in a cesspit that was discovered last month during construction of an underground waste container in Alkmaar, around 30 km (18.6 miles) northwest of Amsterdam.

The cesspit was used as a toilet and for waste disposal from around 1450 to 1558, archaelogists said.

The clog, a European size 36 (UK size 3.5), is estimated to have been made at the end of the 15th or early in the 16th century.

It is the first ever found in the Netherlands made of birch wood, and one of only 44 wooden shoes ever found during excavations in the Netherlands and Belgium.