National Geographic News ,June 9,2010 published the discovery of the worlds’ oldest leather shoe.
The 5,500 year old-moccasin-like shoe had been found well preserved in a surfeit of sheep dung during its dig in an Armenian cave.
The discovery was made in Vayotz province on the Armenian boarder with Iran and Turkey by Diana Zaradaryan of Armenias’ Institute of Archelogy, in 2008 and was published in the online scientific journal PloS ONE.
Made from a single piece of cowhide,the shoe was found to be laced along seams at the front and back,with a leather cord. “The hide had been cut into two layers and tanned ,which was probaly a new technology” said Ros Pinhasi, co-director of the dig from university college Cork in Ireland.
“I’d imagine the leather was wetted first and dthen cut anad fitted around the foot using the foot as a last (mold) to stich it then and there” Yvette Worrel , a shoe maker for the Conker hand made shoe company in dthe U.K. added.
” It immediately struck me as very similar to traditional form of Balkan footwear known as Opanke, which is still worn as a part of regional dress at festivals today” said Elizebeth Zenmelhack, a curator at the Bata shoe museum in Torronto,Canada.
” I thought wow not so much has changed”.
Stunning Preservation:
Radioactivation dated to about 3,500 BC,during Armenias’ copper age , the prehistoric shoe is compressed in the heel and toe area, likely due to to excessive walking.Yet the shoe is by no means worn out.
The shoe had been found sealed in several layers of sheep dung piled up in the Armenian cave after its copper age inhabitants had left.
“The cave enviornment kept cool and dry ,while dung cemented the finds in”, said Pinhasi ,lead authority of the new study.
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