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10,000 year old shoes (left) vs Otzi the Iceman's 5000 year old shoes (right) World's Oldest Shoes World’s oldest shoes—not the ones in your closet! Ten thousand years ago, no living culture had ever heard of Reebok, Adidas, Nike, Birkenstock or Croc, but they knew the importance of a durable and comfortable walking shoe. Last year we incorrectly identified the shoes of Otzi the Iceman as being the oldest pair of shoes—ever. We were wrong—in comparison his 5000 year old shoes are new! On display at the University of Oregon, Museum of Natural and Cultural History are shoes dating as old as 10,000 years, almost twice as old as Otzi the Iceman’s new shoes. Among the museum's holdings are dozens of sandal style shoes discovered by pioneering archaeologist Dr. Luther Cressman during his early 20th century Flat Rock desert cave excavations in Central Oregon. But, not everyone agrees and we were not surprised to learn that there is disagreement in the academic world. "The oldest shoes in the world are about 9,000 years old, and they're from California," said Professor Trinkaus, of Washington University in St Louis, US. But that’s not all—we might discover 40,000 year-old shoes! Sturdy shoes first came into widespread use between 40,000 and 26,000 years ago, according to Trinkaus. Since scholars can’t agree, we don’t feel so bad about our 5000 year mistake. So keep looking for those old shoes—but they are probably not the ones in the back of your closet. Check out more information at my shoe blog. |
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