Einbeck - Petersilienwasser. Befunde und Bebauungsstrukturen des 13. bis 20. Jahrhunderts. MAN 41 (original) (raw)

Einbeck Petersilienwasser 2 Lederfunde und Schusterwerkzeuge

Marquita Volken/Andreas Heege/Stefan Teuber, Einbeck-Petersilienwasser 2 - Lederfunde und Schusterwerkzeuge (Studien zur Einbecker Geschichte 19), Oldenburg 2020., 2020

The archaeological leather finds give an insight into one of Einbeck's districts: the Petersilienwasser, from the mid 13th to the early 16th century. During that time, leather was used to make a wide range of objects, which were mostly intended for personal use and therefore illustrate something of the day to day life of the people who used them. Among the leather objects identified are shoes, boots, pattens, sword and knife sheaths, belts and straps, a mitten and some fragments from a saddle. Beyond the simple identification of the objects, the method of deposit and the stratigraphic position provide clues about the building and construction phases of the Petersilienwasser district. At the same time as the shoes reveal traces of the wearer’s usage they also show the style of the period. They may reflect the economic status of the owner and certainly the far-reaching influence of fashion in Europe. Every day items such as the leather mitten, show how people adapted to the harsh winter conditions. Saddle fragments indicate mobility and transport. Owning a horse was a status symbol, and also the ownership of a sword in a decorated scabbard. The knife sheaths, together with the original iron knives, were considered to be everyday items. They were multifunctional; both tools and table cutlery combined. The leather finds tell us something about craftsmen in the village. Leather offcuts are a clear indication of manufacturing by shoemakers and other producers: Primary waste of new leather scrap from shoemakers and other craftsmen, secondary leather waste resulting from cobblers recycling old shoes. The leather waste shows traces of the tools used. Although only a few original tools were found in Petersilienwasser, it is clear that shoemakers and cobblers used a variety of specialised knives to cut the leather. Awls were indispensable to make the seam holes so that the leather parts could be sewn together. A significant aspect of the archaeological finds was the lack of sewing thread due to its disintegration over time. Shoemakers, cobblers, saddlers and sheathmakers never used sewing needles for sewing. Instead, they attached a flexible but stable boar bristle to the thread using a special wax or pitch. The tools needed for decorating leather shoes or knife sheaths such as stamps, punches or smoothing tools, are evidenced by the decorated shoes or knife and sword sheaths found in Petersilienwasser. The vegetable-tanned leather indicates the presence of tanners whether done by the shoemakers themselves (sippage) or by a full-time tanner. Other types of leather such as chamois are not present as they do not survive in the moist soil. The processed hides come from cattle, calves and goats, also pigs / wild boar, and occasionally deer or dogs. The plots of Petersilienwasser 3–5 contained the largest amount of leather waste together with tanning tubs. This probably shows evidence of a shoemaker tanning small skins, as permitted by the shoemaker and tanners guilds. The near absence of new leather waste from plot Petersilienwasser 7, but the large quantity of secondary cobbler recycled waste (11 new versus 42 used leather fragments) may indicate one of two situations. The first being that the secondary leather waste from the shoemaker/tanner at Petersilienwasser 3–5 was selectively dumped outside of the main work area or that the plot Petersilienwasser 7 was occupied by a cobbler. As we have little information about the shoemakers’ guild rules at the time, it may be that we are seeing the division of the workshop into three areas; the tanning area, the shoemaker area and the cobbler area, presumably with several workers under the control of a shoemaker guild member or master.

Der Wasserbau im Mittelalter anhand ausgewählter Beispiele aus Südbaden

Christoph Ohlig (Hg.), Historische Wassernutzung an Donau und Hochrhein sowie zwischen Schwarzwald u. Vogesen, Schriften der Deutschen Wasserhistorischen Gesellschaft e.V., Band 10, S.221-238, 2008 ; Mitteilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Archäologie des Mittelalters u. der Neuzeit 21, 2009