When did it happen? The find took place during investigations at the Durrnberg mine near Salzburg. These led to the discovery of a well-preserved 2000-year-old children’s shoe. This is reported by the German Mining Museum Bochum. The 2,000-year-old shoe has remained intact all this time.
The Durrnberg salt mine has been explored for thousands of years. Countless previous studies were carried out in the region. Thanks to this, artifacts and evidence of Early Iron Age settlements were discovered. The newly found shoe has been preserved thanks to the high levels of salt at the site. This is what prevents the spread of bacteria and other microorganisms.
Other objects
During the excavations, archaeologists also found a fragment of a wooden shovel. Remains of a leather garment with a loop were also found. And this, according to the researchers, would belong to a hood.
“The condition of the shoe found is excellent,” claims Thomas Stoellner, the lead researcher. The shoe is made of leather and has traces of a linen lace. Based on the shape of the shoe, it was probably made during the 2nd century B.C. Leather shoes had previously been found in Durrnberg. However, the now discovered piece proves that minors were also in the mines during the workings there thousands of years ago.
Wearing shoes
It is not known when people started wearing shoes. Several finds of human footprints dating back to the Paleolithic era give us some clues. These may indicate that South Africans and Europeans were wearing shoes more than 100,000 years ago.
However, we still have no direct comparable evidence by age. Today, the oldest footwear discovered comes from the United States. It was there that sandals woven from wormwood fibers were found in 1938. These were about 10,000 years old. Five times older than the 2000 year old shoe.
