Shoes from Areni Cave - 5500-year-old leather boot , which was found in 2008 in excellent condition in the Areni cave complex, located in Vayots Dzor region of Armenia [1] . This is a one-piece leather boot that is several centuries older than the ice man Ezi’s shoes, making him the oldest all-leather shoe in the world known to researchers. Much older shoes, 10,000-year-old sandals made from wormwood, were discovered in the United States at Fort Rock Cave in Oregon [2] . According to current evidence, people started using shoes from 40,000 to 26,000 years ago [3] [4] . The discovery was made by an international team of researchers led by Boris Gasparyan , an archaeologist from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia [5] .
Opening
An Armenian graduate student Diana Zardaryan found a leather boot during excavations conducted by a group of archaeologists from the Armenian Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, as well as from Ireland and the USA [6] . Shoes were found lying upside down at the bottom of a neatly crafted pit 45 cm deep and 44-48 cm in diameter under an inverted broken copper cup of the copper age [7] . A broken pot and goat horns were found nearby. Thanks to excavations in the same area, the oldest winery in the world was found [8] .
Analysis
The shoes were found in almost perfect condition due to the cool and dry conditions of the cave and the thick layer of sheep dung that acted as a compactor. Large storage tanks were found in the same cave, in many of them wheat, barley, apricots , and other edible plants were well preserved [9] . The shoes were filled with straw and grass. Archaeologists are not sure whether it was insulation to keep the foot warm, or whether grass was used to maintain the shape of the shoe during storage. Leading archaeologist Ron Pinhashi was unable to determine whether the shoe belonged to a man or woman. While the shoe size is small, about the 37th, he stated that “shoes could also suit a man from that era” [9] . Shoelaces even survived [9] .
The main similarities in the technique of making whole leather shoes found in Europe and shoes from Areni Cave may indicate that shoes of this type have been worn for thousands of years in a large and ecologically diverse geographical region [7] . According to Pinhashi, the shoe from the Areni Cave is similar to the Irish Pamputi , shoes worn on the Aran Islands until the 1950s [10] . Shoes are also very similar to the traditional Balkan, known as opanak [11] .
When the material was examined in two radiocarbon laboratories in Oxford and California, it was found that shoes date back to 3,500 BC. e. This date is several hundred years older than the date set for the leather shoes found on the ice man Ezi [9] .
After processing for preservation, shoes from the Areni Cave will be exhibited in the Historical Museum of Armenia [12] .
Notes
- ↑ Dindar, Shereen . World's Oldest Leather Shoe Found — Stunningly Preserved , National Post (June 9, 2010). Date of treatment June 11, 2010.
- ↑ World's Oldest Shoes In Oregon - 10,000-Year-Old Sandals Found In 1938 Among 70 Pairs Unearthed Within Cave , Seattle Times (December 1, 1999). Date of treatment June 13, 2010.
- ↑ Johnson, Olivia . Bones reveal first shoe-wearers , BBC News (August 24, 2005). Date of treatment June 12, 2010.
- ↑ Trinkaus, E. & Shang, H. (2008), " Anatomical evidence for the antiquity of human footwear: Tianyuan and Sunghir ", Journal of Archaeological Science T. 35 (7): 1928–1933 , DOI 10.1016 / j.jas .2007.12.002 .
- ↑ Bruce Bower . Ancient shoe steps out of cave and into limelight (July 3, 2010). Date of treatment September 8, 2010.
- ↑ Oldest Leather Shoe A 'Dream' Find For Armenian Scientist , Armenia Liberty ( RFE / RL ), June 12, 2010.
- ↑ 1 2 Pinhasi, Ron . First Direct Evidence of Chalcolithic Footwear from the Near Eastern Highlands , PloS ONE (June 9, 2010). Date of treatment June 9, 2010.
- ↑ 'Oldest known wine-making facility' found in Armenia. , BBC (January 11, 2011). Date of treatment January 11, 2011.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 What's Older Than the Pyramids and Smells Worse Than a Mummy? Fox News (June 9, 2010). Archived on June 13, 2010. Date of treatment June 9, 2010.
- ↑ 5,500-year leather mocassin world's oldest shoe (June 10, 2010). Date of treatment June 12, 2010.
- ↑ National Geographic: World's Oldest Leather Shoe Found — Stunningly Preserved
- ↑ Gevorgyan, Siranuysh . Do You Have that in a Size 38 ?: World's oldest shoe to go on display in Yerevan , ArmeniaNow.com (June 14, 2010). Date of treatment June 14, 2010.