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Archaeologists kicking up their heels at finding what may be world's
oldest leather shoe
RANDOLPH E. SCHMID AP Science Writer
June 9, 2010 | 2:12 p.m.
WASHINGTON (AP) - About 5,500 years ago someone in the mountains of
Armenia put his best foot forward in what is now the oldest leather
shoe ever found.
It'll never be confused with a penny loafer or a track shoe, but the
well-preserved footwear was made of a single piece of leather, laced
up the front and back, researchers reported Wednesday in PLoS One, a
journal of the Public Library of Science.
Worn and shaped by the wearer's right foot, the shoe was found in a
cave along with other evidence of human occupation. The shoe had been
stuffed with grass, which dated to the same time as the leather of the
shoe - between 5,637 and 5,387 years ago.
"This is great luck," enthused archaeologist Ron Pinhasi of University
College Cork in Cork, Ireland, who led the research team.
"We normally only find broken pots, but we have very little
information about the day-to-day activity" of these ancient people.
"What did they eat? What did they do? What did they wear? This is a
chance to see this ... it gives us a real glimpse into society," he
said in a telephone interview.
Previously the oldest leather shoe discovered in Europe or Asia was on
the famous Otzi, the "Iceman" found frozen in the Alps a few years ago
and now preserved in Italy. Otzi has been dated to 5,375 and 5,128
years ago, a few hundred years more recent than the Armenian shoe.
Otzi's shoes were made of deer and bear leather held together by a
leather strap. The Armenian shoe appears to be made of cowhide,
Pinhasi said.
Older sandals have been found in a cave in Missouri, but those were
made of fiber rather than leather.
The shoe found in what is now Armenia was found in a pit, along with a
broken pot and some wild goat horns.
But Pinhasi doesn't think it was thrown away. There was discarded
material that had been tossed outside the cave, while this pit was
inside in the living area. And while the shoe had been worn, it wasn't
worn out.
It's not clear if the grass that filled the shoe was intended as a
lining or insulation, or to maintain the shape of the shoe when it was
stored, according to the researchers.
The Armenian shoe was small by current standards - European size 37 or
U.S. women's size 7 - but might have fit a man of that era, according
to Pinhasi.
He described the shoe as a single piece of leather cut to fit the
foot. The back of the shoe was closed by a lace passing through four
sets of eyelets. In the front, 15 pairs of eyelets were used to lace
from toe to top.
There was no reinforcement in the sole, just the one layer of soft
leather. "I don't know how long it would last in rocky terrain,"
Pinhasi said.
He noted that the shoe is similar to a type of footwear common in the
Aran Islands, west of Ireland, up until the 1950s. The Irish version,
known as "pampooties" reportedly didn't last long, he said.
"In fact, enormous similarities exist between the manufacturing
technique and style of this (Armenian) shoe and those found across
Europe at later periods, suggesting that this type of shoe was worn
for thousands of years across a large and environmentally diverse
region," Pinhasi said.
While the Armenian shoe was soft when unearthed, the leather has begun
to harden now that it is exposed to air, Pinhasi said.
Oh, and unlike a lot of very old shoes, it didn't smell.
Pinhasi said the shoe is currently at the Institute of Archaeology in
Yerevan, but he hopes it will be sent to laboratories in either
Switzerland or Germany where it can be treated for preservation and
then returned to Armenia for display in a museum.
Pinhasi, meanwhile, is heading back to Armenia this week, hoping the
other shoe will drop.
The research was funded by the National Geographic Society, the
Chitjian Foundation, the Gfoeller Foundation, the Steinmetz Family
Foundation, the Boochever Foundation and the Cotsen Institute of
Archaeology at UCLA.
___
On the Net:
PLoS One: http://www.plosone.org/home.action
University College Cork: http://www.ucc.ie/en/
Institute of Archaeology, Yerevan: http://www.sci.am/resorgs.php?oid
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/wire/sns-ap-us-fea-old-shoe,0,3202415.story
From: A. Papazian
oldest leather shoe
RANDOLPH E. SCHMID AP Science Writer
June 9, 2010 | 2:12 p.m.
WASHINGTON (AP) - About 5,500 years ago someone in the mountains of
Armenia put his best foot forward in what is now the oldest leather
shoe ever found.
It'll never be confused with a penny loafer or a track shoe, but the
well-preserved footwear was made of a single piece of leather, laced
up the front and back, researchers reported Wednesday in PLoS One, a
journal of the Public Library of Science.
Worn and shaped by the wearer's right foot, the shoe was found in a
cave along with other evidence of human occupation. The shoe had been
stuffed with grass, which dated to the same time as the leather of the
shoe - between 5,637 and 5,387 years ago.
"This is great luck," enthused archaeologist Ron Pinhasi of University
College Cork in Cork, Ireland, who led the research team.
"We normally only find broken pots, but we have very little
information about the day-to-day activity" of these ancient people.
"What did they eat? What did they do? What did they wear? This is a
chance to see this ... it gives us a real glimpse into society," he
said in a telephone interview.
Previously the oldest leather shoe discovered in Europe or Asia was on
the famous Otzi, the "Iceman" found frozen in the Alps a few years ago
and now preserved in Italy. Otzi has been dated to 5,375 and 5,128
years ago, a few hundred years more recent than the Armenian shoe.
Otzi's shoes were made of deer and bear leather held together by a
leather strap. The Armenian shoe appears to be made of cowhide,
Pinhasi said.
Older sandals have been found in a cave in Missouri, but those were
made of fiber rather than leather.
The shoe found in what is now Armenia was found in a pit, along with a
broken pot and some wild goat horns.
But Pinhasi doesn't think it was thrown away. There was discarded
material that had been tossed outside the cave, while this pit was
inside in the living area. And while the shoe had been worn, it wasn't
worn out.
It's not clear if the grass that filled the shoe was intended as a
lining or insulation, or to maintain the shape of the shoe when it was
stored, according to the researchers.
The Armenian shoe was small by current standards - European size 37 or
U.S. women's size 7 - but might have fit a man of that era, according
to Pinhasi.
He described the shoe as a single piece of leather cut to fit the
foot. The back of the shoe was closed by a lace passing through four
sets of eyelets. In the front, 15 pairs of eyelets were used to lace
from toe to top.
There was no reinforcement in the sole, just the one layer of soft
leather. "I don't know how long it would last in rocky terrain,"
Pinhasi said.
He noted that the shoe is similar to a type of footwear common in the
Aran Islands, west of Ireland, up until the 1950s. The Irish version,
known as "pampooties" reportedly didn't last long, he said.
"In fact, enormous similarities exist between the manufacturing
technique and style of this (Armenian) shoe and those found across
Europe at later periods, suggesting that this type of shoe was worn
for thousands of years across a large and environmentally diverse
region," Pinhasi said.
While the Armenian shoe was soft when unearthed, the leather has begun
to harden now that it is exposed to air, Pinhasi said.
Oh, and unlike a lot of very old shoes, it didn't smell.
Pinhasi said the shoe is currently at the Institute of Archaeology in
Yerevan, but he hopes it will be sent to laboratories in either
Switzerland or Germany where it can be treated for preservation and
then returned to Armenia for display in a museum.
Pinhasi, meanwhile, is heading back to Armenia this week, hoping the
other shoe will drop.
The research was funded by the National Geographic Society, the
Chitjian Foundation, the Gfoeller Foundation, the Steinmetz Family
Foundation, the Boochever Foundation and the Cotsen Institute of
Archaeology at UCLA.
___
On the Net:
PLoS One: http://www.plosone.org/home.action
University College Cork: http://www.ucc.ie/en/
Institute of Archaeology, Yerevan: http://www.sci.am/resorgs.php?oid
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/wire/sns-ap-us-fea-old-shoe,0,3202415.story
From: A. Papazian