World’s Oldest Shoes: Some Look Surprisingly Modern

More than 700 years ago today, on May 20, 1310, shoes were made for the first time for both right and left feet. Before that, unfortunately, they weren’t.

Archaeologists have discovered several very old shoes in many parts of the world. Some of the shoes are thousands of years old and in remarkably good condition. Here we present some of the oldest shoes discovered worldwide, and as you can see, some of them look surprisingly modern.

The Areni-1 shoe: World’s Oldest Shoe Was Found In A Cave In Armenia

The world’s oldest shoe was discovered in Armenian cave and is around 5,500 years old. It’s older than the ancient Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge. Known as the Areni-1 shoe, the moccasin-like shoe is compressed in the heel and toe area, likely due to miles upon miles of walking. However, the shoe is by no means worn out, and it’s still in very good condition. Researchers and designers have emphasized it is astonishing how much this shoe resembles a modern shoe.

Iceman Ötzi’s Shoes

The Iceman Ötzi’s shoes were long regarded as the oldest known shoes until the discovery of the 5,500-years old Armenian shoes. Ötzi’s shoes are sophisticated and consist of an inner and outer part.

The inner shoe is composed of grass netting. Its purpose was to hold hay in place, which served as insulation material. The outer part is made of deerskin. Both parts – the grass netting and the leather upper – are fastened to an oval-shaped sole made of bearskin by means of leather straps. Unlike the sole, the uppers were worn with fur on the outside. The shaft around the ankle was bound with grass fibers.

World’s Oldest Sandals Were Discovered In Fort Rock Cave, Oregon

The word sandal derives from the Greek word sandal. The ancient Greeks distinguished between baxeae (sing. baxea), a sandal made of willow leaves, twigs, or fibers worn by comic actors and philosophers, and the cothurnus, a boot sandal that rose above the middle of the leg, worn principally by tragic actors, horsemen, hunters, and by men of rank and authority. The sole of the latter was sometimes made much thicker than usual by the insertion of slices of cork, so as to add to the stature of the wearer.

Sandals were popular among ancient Egyptians. They wore sandals made of palm leaves and papyrus.

The world’s oldest sandals were discovered in 1938 by anthropologist Luther Cressman in Fort Rock Cave, Oregon, United States. Cressman came across dozens of sandals and fragments of sandals inside the cave. They were found beneath a layer of volcanic ash, which was later identified as coming from the eruption of Mount Mazama.

Cressman believed that the sandals were ancient, but because radiocarbon dating would not be developed for another decade, his conviction would not be confirmed until 1951, when fibers from the sandals themselves were dated to more than 9,000 years old. Fort Rock sandals are made of shredded sagebrush bark. They are twined, with pairs of fiber wefts twisted around passive warps, in contrast to simple over-and-under interlacing or plaiting, known as wickerwork.

3,000-Year-Old Shoe Found On A Beach In Kent, UK

The shoe as it was found on a foreshore in North Kent. Credit: Steve Tomlinson Britain’s oldest shoe has been found on a beach in Kent. The shoe, made of leather, is 3,000 years old and was discovered by archaeologist Steve Tomlinson.

When Tomlinson found the shoe, he did not think it was special, but he sent it for carbon dating at an East Kilbride, Scotland unit. Five weeks later, he received a reply stating the shoe was from the late Bronze Age. 

1,700-Year-Old Roman Shoes Found In France

Archaeologists excavating in the small village of  Thérouanne, located on the river Lys in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France have made some fascinating discoveries. Scientists unearthed 1,700-year-old Roman shoes that are still in good condition and an exceptional glass workshop.

Startling Roman-Looking Sandal Discovered Buried Deep Beneath The Snow In Norwegian Mountains

Team Secrets of the Ice has been searching for clues about the past in the Norwegian mountains for 15 years, and during this time the scientists have made many unusual discoveries.

Among the most significant finds are the hundreds of pre-historic cairns, which are stone structures that signaled to the travelers where the route went, a lost Viking settlement, an iron horseshoe as well as ancient textiles.

One curious find is the startling Roman-looking sandal that scientists found buried deep beneath the snow in an ancient, dangerous Norwegian mountain pass. 

Oldest Shoe Discovered In Canada

The oldest shoe discovered in Canada is a 1,400-year-old made of deerskin found in a glacier region.

Who Did These Ancient Foreign Shoes Belong To?

In 2004, an Italian archaeological team discovered ancient shoes that were deliberately hidden in an Egyptian temple.

The two pairs of children’s shoes were among the seven found concealed in a jar placed into a cavity between two mudbrick walls in a temple in Luxor, the site of the ancient city of Thebes.

Oddly, the shoes were tied together using palm fiber string and placed within a single adult shoe. A third pair that an adult had worn was found alongside them. The shoes were obviously of foreign origin, as they were concealed at a time when most Egyptians would normally have worn sandals. The shoes were expensive and in pristine condition, at least at the time of discovery. Unfortunately, after they were unearthed, the shoes became brittle and ‘extremely fragile,

Who the owner of the shoes was has never been determined. “The shoes were eye-striking at the time. If you wore such shoes, “everybody would look at you,” wrote Dr. Veldmeijer, assistant director of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo and an expert in ancient Egyptian footwear in the Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt.

Scientists Reconstruct Face Of 16th Century Italian ‘Vampire’ Buried With Brick In Mouth

A 16th-century ‘vampire‘ who was buried with a stone brick jammed in her mouth over fears she would feed on corpses underground has had her face reconstructed by scientists.

A facial reconstruction expert reconstructed the features of the female corpse discovered in a mass grave of plague victims on the Venetian island of Lazzaretto Nuovo. Brazilian forensic expert and 3D illustrator Cícero Moraes applied features to the woman, who was unearthed in an archeological dig in 2006.

Incredible new images – made using 3D scans of her ancient skull – reveal a woman with a pointed chin, silver hair, wrinkled skin, and a slightly crooked nose.

Moraes was also able to test the theory of whether it would even be feasible to put a brick in someone’s mouth thanks to this research.

Researchers think the brick was put there shortly after she died by locals who feared she would feed on fellow victims of a plague that swept.

Forensic anthropologist Matteo Borrini led the exploration of the mass grave from the 1576 outbreak of plague. “Vampires don’t exist, but studies show people at the time believed they did,” Morrini said in a statement in 2009, after studying the case for 2 years.  “For the first time, we have found evidence of an exorcism against a vampire.”

Skeletal evidence already suggests she was 61 years of age at the time of death, and further studies revealed that the skull belonged to a woman of European ancestry. An analysis of her diet shows she mainly ate grains and vegetables, suggesting she was from Europe’s lower class at the time.

Researchers theorize that a gravedigger may have wedged a rock between the corpse’s teeth to prevent the alleged vampire from chewing through her shroud and infecting others with the plague.

During this time in European history, there was a rise in vampire hysteria as villagers started looking for paranormal reasons to blame for the fatal illnesses that were ravaging the continent.

It is believed that the vampire theory was disseminated by Italian gravediggers who frequently encountered horrifying decaying bodies when reopening mass burials to accommodate additional corpses.

The idea that these decaying remains were feasting on the blood of their grave-mates was reinforced by the way they frequently looked horribly bloated, with bodily fluids oozing from their mouths and noses. It’s possible that the shrouds covering the corpses’ mouths disintegrated in some instances, giving rise to the theory that vampires gained their strength by consuming these fragments of cloth.

“The researchers found that when they observed the body with the shroud, those responsible for the burial noticed a depression in the mouth region, indicating potential chewing,” study authors write in the journal OrtogOnline.

“By supposedly identifying a vampire, one of the culprits of the plague according to the popular myth of the time, they introduced the stone as an element of protection, preventing it from feeding and also from infecting other people.”

In order to ascertain whether the brick could have been purposefully placed into the woman’s mouth after her death, Moraes replicated the brick using Styrofoam and carried out a number of tests. Their tests revealed that the brick could be wedged into a human mouth without causing damage to the teeth or soft tissue. Compared to the team’s living test subjects, the study authors believe it would have been even easier with the corpse, although it’s still unclear if this was done intentionally or not.

The research is published in the journal OrtogOnline.

New study: Human brains preserve in diverse environments for at least 12 000 years

A study by forensic anthropologist Alexandra Morton-Hayward and her team from the University of Oxford has shown that the human brain can survive the test of time far better than previously believed. This finding shows that human brains are surprisingly resistant to disintegration, which is a sharp contrast to previous theories.

Researchers, canvassed archaeologists around the world for this research project, resulting in a global archive collating records—and some specimens—of more than 4,400 preserved human brains.

These brains, found across diverse environments—from the icy terrains of the North Pole to the dry deserts of Ancient Egypt—challenge the notion that brains are among the first organs to decompose.

The brain is usually one of the first organs to decompose following death. Thus, the perception persists that naturally preserved brains are “unique” or “extremely rare” discoveries, particularly in the absence of other soft tissues. However, recent research challenges these perceptions, demonstrating that preserved brains exist in far greater abundance than previously thought, thanks to conditions that prevent decay.

Morton-Hayward says these ancient brains might be an untapped source of information about the past.

The preserved brains displayed a variety of conditions, with textures ranging from brittle and dry to soft and spongy. Surprisingly, a significant portion of these brains were discovered in bodies where no other soft tissues survived, presenting an unusual phenomenon in the realm of archaeological discoveries.

Morton-Hayward, in an interview with Science: The brain usually just liquefies almost immediately. But I sometimes had autopsy cases where the body had been opened up but the brain was still perfect, like a jelly in the skull.

When I went looking in the literature, I was surprised to find a lot of examples of preserved brains. I eventually found thousands, going back 12,000 years, and from every continent except Antarctica. “Yet no one is investigating this material,” said.

“I think what’s intriguing about this research is that although we know the brain can liquefy quickly, clearly, in some circumstances, it also preserves and on incredibly long timescales,” Morton-Hayward told Science. “So, I would argue that we need to start thinking in greater depth about soft tissue preservation.”

Though less than 1 percent of the archive is currently being studied, the sheer volume of preserved brains has opened up new research opportunities.

The factors like freezing, tanning, and dehydration that help preserve them are being closely examined. Yet, what makes brains endure when other organs do not remains a mystery. This mystery could lie in the brain’s unique brain’s distinct chemical composition, particularly its balanced ratio of proteins to lipids, which may interact with environmental factors such as metals, resulting in preservation.

Therefore, Morton-Hayward’s ongoing research represents an “untapped archive” that could shed light on human evolution, as well as help us to better understand ancient health and disease.

The research could even provide insights into neurodegenerative conditions that affect people today, such as Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

As Morton-Hayward notes, “Ancient brains may provide new and unique paleobiological insights.” This research could revolutionize our understanding of neurological development and disorders, offering a window into the health and lifestyle of our ancestors.

This new study was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.