Origins

This sock has been dated to the 12th to 13th centuries CE and is one of the earliest known knitted items ever found. This places it during the Islamic period in Egypt somewhere within the Fatimid, Ayyubid, or Mamluk dynasties. Textiles from Egypt in this period are often called “Coptic,” however I think that is sort of a misnomer in this case as this sock’s creation seems somewhat separate from the renowned weaving tradition of the Copts. Most studies on Coptic textiles/textiles from this period in Egypt focus exclusively on weaving. The term “medieval” is also applied to this period of Egyptian history. 

The oldest surviving knit item is also a sock from the same region, possibly dating as early as 1000 CE, as discussed in Knitting. It is not only possible but likely that knitting was developed decades, and more probably centuries, earlier, given the level of skill demonstrated in socks of this period. In general, textiles survive less frequently than more durable items like ceramics or metals. When they do survive, they are often found in burial contexts in which they have been extremely well protected from climate changes and moisture that would degrade them. Given its age, this sock most likely came from a burial context.

Unfortunately, the Met does not have any further information on the sock beyond when and where it was purchased, so it’s impossible to know much more about its origins or original usage for certain. This is a common story for items acquired by collectors, especially from places outside Europe, until quite recently. Many collectors and institutions cared more about how the item could function in the present as a source of inspiration and object of wealth, in the case of more valuable finds. However, we can extrapolate a bit from what we know of socks generally and the material clues in the sock itself.

How would it have been worn?

Since it is such a functional item, we can make certain assumptions about it, like that it would have originally been worn on the foot in a way very similar to how we wear socks today. It wouldn’t have been worn with a sandal, like some earlier nålbinding socks could, but there were plenty of non-sandal shoes being worn in this region before, during, and after the time this sock was made. The items below date to just before the Islamic period in Egypt. There are also extant examples of nålbinding socks that had a single toe, rather than a split toe.1

Sock, 4th-5th century CE, National Museums Scotland. A.1911.315. There’s a great post by a textile conservator who worked on this sock.
Leather Shoe with Gilded Decoration, 4th-7th century CE (late Byzantine period), Metropolitan Museum of Art. 90.5.34a.
Hariri al-Basri, al-Qasim ibn Ali al- (1054-1122), copied and illuminated by Yahyâ b. Mahmûd al-Wâsitî, Abu Zayd preaching, Maqama 21, From: Al-Maqâmât (Settings or Sessions), Baghdad, 1237. Illumination on paper, 37 x 28 cm. Ms. ARABE 5847 Folio 59.
© BnF, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

There do not seem to be any depictions of Egyptians clearly wearing socks, so it is hard to say exactly how they would have been worn or how high-status they were as an item. There are manuscript paintings from elsewhere in the Islamic world, like the 13th century one on the left from Baghdad, that depict men wearing the kinds of shoes and boots that would merit tall socks. To stay up, perhaps they would have used some sort of garter, like stockings do. In examining the sock, there does appear to be a loop or bit of thread at the top where it was cast-on, which could hypothetically have served as a loop and connected to a button on the wearer’s pants to stay up. However, if the sock was inside a boot, rather than a slipper, it might not have needed as much help staying up, as it could function more like a boot lining. Much like the slipper above, the sock would most likely have been worn by higher status members of society as shoes and socks were an added expense for some rather than a necessity.

If we think of socks as essentially cushioning for your feet to protect them from your shoes, which in turn protect you from the ground, the concept of socks long predates fabric socks, going back over 5000 years to Otzi the Iceman, found well-preserved and frozen solid in the Otzal Mountains in 1991 with hay stuffed in his shoes.2 At some point, socks began to be made from woven fabric wrapped or folded around the foot, and eventually sewn to fit. However, woven fabric is not as stretchy as knit fabric, even when it is aligned along the bias to get maximum stretch.3

Fabric socks keep feet warm, prevent chafing from shoes, and absorb sweat in a way that can be washed, unlike many shoes. Foot sweat itself, in general, is actually not smelly because it is not the body odor kind of sweat; it comes from eccrine glands. The smell we associate with feet actually comes from our shoes, which house bacteria that eat the dead skin that comes off our feet. Those bacteria’s excretions create the smell associated with feet, socks, and shoes.4

Knitting is particularly well-suited to making socks because of its stretch, much greater than that of woven fabric. Basic knitting terminology, like “stockinette” and “garter” stitches come from its association with hosiery, originally used for stockings and where the garters would be attached respectively.5 In Europe, many of the earliest examples of knitting found are in the graves of elites, perhaps suggesting that this was a more expensive kind of stocking or possibly just that their graves were the best preserved.6 These Egyptian socks may have also come from the graves of elites. 

Journey to the Metropolitan Museum of Art

This sock came to the Metropolitan Museum of Art not as a pair, but a single sock. It was purchased in 1927 from antique dealer Joseph Abemayor in Cairo by Herbert E. Winlock for the Museum using the Rogers Fund.7 He also purchased another similar sock at the same time. Far from being a sock-finding expedition, the socks were purchased in the course of excavations carried out by the Met. Winlock was a renowned Egyptologist who undertook many excavations for the Met between 1906 and 1931. Many of the ancient Egyptian artifacts currently in the MMA’s collections emerged during annual excavations that he worked on, and he was also deeply involved in Howard Carter’s excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb in the 1920s.8 The Met, like many other major Western museums and universities, excavated annually at sites in the Mediterranean for decades, recording the artifacts they found and taking them with them away from their home countries. 

As mentioned above, these socks likely emerged from an excavation of a burial site, given their age and level of preservation, even if there is no surviving record of which burial site(s) they came from. The dealer it was purchased from, Joseph Abemayor, managed his family’s shops for antiquities in Cairo and Paris, which had been started by his grandfather. His younger brother later emigrated to the United States and worked for decades as a dealer of Egyptian and Greco-Roman antiquities. Their shop in Cairo was on rue Kamel opposite Shepheard’s Hotel, and can be seen on the right in the photo below.9 

Guests on the terrace of Shepheard’s Hotel, Cairo, circa 1935. (Photo by Frederic Lewis/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The socks were purchased from Abemayor using the Rogers Fund, started from a bequest by railroad magnate Jacob S. Rogers. Rogers left the equivalent of almost $230 million to the Museum as an endowment upon his death in 1901, with the provision that only the interest from the endowment could be used, not the principal sum itself. Many items at the Museum have been and continue to be purchased with money from this fund.10

An interesting side note on other Islamic-era Egyptian knit socks: The Textile Museum at George Washington University has several other examples of socks collected by founder George Hewitt Meyers in 1953 and 1954, though their original source is not mentioned on the website. They were all featured in the Museum’s 1997 exhibition “Looping and Knitting, A History.” Here are four of them, all with more intricate colorwork than our central sock, though one looks quite similar. 

Sock, 73.698
Sock, 73.695
Sock, 73.697
Sock, 73.700

Life at the Met

This sock has been exhibited once, in an exhibition called Spirit of the Word at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2006.11 There is no record of this exhibition online other than the Met catalog’s citation of it on this and other items in their collection, so we can’t be sure what role it played within the exhibition.

Footnotes
  1. The Textile Museum at George Washington University holds some such single-toe nålbinding socks, including this one and this one.
  2. Kim Adrian, Sock (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 12-14.
  3. Adrian, Sock, 23-24.
  4. Adrian, Sock, 18-21.
  5. Adrian, Sock, 25-28.
  6. Adrian, Sock, 32.
  7. Anonymous, sock, cotton, 1100-1300, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 27.170.95, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/448138.
  8. “Herbert Eustis Winlock,” Wikipedia, last modified May 9, 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Eustis_Winlock. 
  9. M. L. Bierbrier, ed., Who Was Who in Egyptology (4th ed. London: The Egypt Exploration Society, 2012), http://www.kaowarsom.be/virtual_library/Bierbrier%202012_Who%20Was%20Who.pdf. 
  10. Jonathan Bloom, “This Weekend in Met History: July 2,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, posted July 1, 2011, https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/features/2011/this-weekend-in-met-history-july-2. 
  11. Anonymous, sock, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 27.170.95.