SHOES FOUND IX BELGIUM. 



187 



that the articles had been put into it from some tomb 

 and again buried. The previous year bones had been 

 found in the place in which this collection was dis- 

 covered.'' No drawings accompany the description. 



In the Royal Museum of Antiquities at Brussels is a 

 shoe, found in 1863, during excavations carried on at 

 Wundrez-lez-Binche, Hainault. With it were several 

 antiquities, and notably a bronze coin of Faustina (a.d. 

 175). Four inches in length and width, this specimen of 

 farriery (fig. ^^) has only four nail-holes, and though 

 broad in the cover, is yet 

 thin and light, and un- 

 provided with calks.'' The 

 outer border is even, the 

 holes quadrilateral and 

 well placed. 



A very interesting dis- 

 covery was made in 1 848, 

 during mining operations 

 at Lede, a village near Alost, Eastern Flanders. Three 

 shoes were found along with relics which authorities 

 have stated to be Frankish, 

 and to belong to about the 

 6th century. One of these 

 relics is an earthenware vase 

 (fig. 54), which certainly bears 

 a striking likeness to one type 

 of that ware pertaining to that 

 age and country. The first 

 horse-shoe we might designate a Romano-Frankish speci- 



' Bulletin de 1' Academic des Sciences de Belgique, vol. xiii. p. 193. 



fig- s^ 



-TIM 



A,),'- iiiiii /.ii.« ci» II \i »»'Vr.V) 



%,P«Mairi,„,,-„,„j , lit 



fig- 54 



