Scientists state they have identified Europe’s oldest shoes: a pair of sandals woven from grass thought to be around 6,000 years old.
They were among a load of ancient objects discovered in a bat cave in Spain plundered by miners in the 19th Century, but have only now been analyzed in a new study, along with baskets and a set of tools, reports the BBC.
According to the researchers of this study, the cave was first accessed in 1831 by a landowner who collected bat guano, or droppings, used to make fertilizer.
Less than two decades later, it was used by miners who, while mining the cave, discovered a gallery that held partially mummified corpses, baskets, wooden tools, and among others – wild boar teeth and a unique gold diadem.
Low humidity and cool winds in the cave, Cueva de los Murciélagos in Andalusia, have kept the artefacts unusually well-preserved. The objects “are the oldest and best preserved set of plant fibre materials in southern Europe so far known.” the study’s co-author, María Herrero Otal, pointed out.
“The technological diversity and the treatment of raw materials documented highlights the skill of prehistoric communities”m she added.
New dating techniques used showed that the collection of 76 objects found in the cave were around 2,000 years older than was previously thought. Some objects in the set even date back 9,000 years.
The sandals that were analysed used different types of grass in their structure, researchers said, but also included other materials such as leather and lime.They date to the Neolithic period, making them older than the 5,500-year-old leather shoes discovered in a cave in Armenia back in 2008.
