Leather shoes from the graves of the St. George cathedral in the St. George's (Yuriev) monastery of Velikiy Novgorod

The paper reviews examples of special footwear made for the deceased discovered during excavations of a section in the necropolis of the St. George Cathedral in the St. George’s (Yuriev) Monastery of Velikiy Novgorod, the excavations led by Vl. V. Sedov were performed by the Novgorod architectural and archaeological team of the Institute of Archaeology, RAS, in summer of 2017. Several pairs of leather shoes in various state of preservation were recorded in white-stone sarcophagus No. 2 containing eight deceased. The archaeologically traceable tradition of making special footwear for the deceased along with ordinary footwear for everyday use was documented for the period between the 13th century and the early 17th century. Burial footwear dated to the period from the first half of the 12th century to the early 14th century signifies the initial stage of this tradition.