Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries 1-2 (November 2009)Liesbeth Troubleyn; Frank Kinnaer; Anton Ervynck; Luk Beeckmans; Danielle Caluwé; Brigitte Cooremans; Frans De Buyser; Koen Deforce; Konjev Desender; An Lentacker; Jan Moens; Gaston Van Bulck; Maarten Van Dijck; Wim Van Neer; Werner Wouters: Consumption patterns and living conditions inside Het Steen, the late medieval prison of Malines (Mechelen, Belgium)
5 The small finds

5.5 Leather

In total, 139 fragments of leather have been recovered (cesspits 2 and 4 combined), characterised by moderate to poor preservation conditions. The majority (100 fragments) comprises parts of shoes. Two types of shoes could be identified. One is a side-laced ankle shoe and the other a wooden-soled patten mule. The remainder are fragments of belts and nine more or less circular discs (fig. 18), probably to be interpreted as game pieces, cut out of used leather, most probably soles of shoes. One sole fragment clearly shows that discs have been cut out of it (fig. 19), which implies that they were made locally, in an ad hoc way.

FIG2

Fig. 18 Leather game pieces.

FIG2

Fig. 19 Fragment of the leather sole of a shoe with circular incisions.