10/06/2010 16:12
World's oldest leather shoe discovered in cave in Armenia
Researchers reported Wednesday finding the world's oldest leather shoe in a cave in Armenia.
Created more than 5,500 years ago at the dawn of civilisation this perfectly preserved brown leather lace-up is the oldest shoe in the world. The shoe and other items, among them well-preserved wheat and barley, apricots and other edible plants, were discovered in the cave in the Vayotz Dzor province of Armenia.
Dr Ron Pinhasi, an archaeologist at the University College Cork, said: "It is an amazing find. We thought we were looking at something just a few hundred years old but it turns out to be oldest shoe ever found."
Archaeologists say the shoe probably belonged to a woman who deliberately buried it in the cave during a mysterious ritual.