9,500-Year-Old Baskets And 6,200-Year-Old Sandals Found In Spanish Cave

[Judi Lynn]

8. These 6,000-year-old sandals found in a Spanish cave are Europe's oldest shoes

By Issy Ronald, CNN
Published 12:51 PM EDT, Fri September 29, 2023



CNN
—
New analysis has identified the oldest shoes ever discovered in Europe, according to a study published this week in the journal Science Advances.

The 22 woven sandals date from 6,000 years ago, radiocarbon analysis found in the study led by researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Alcalá University in Spain.

The ancient footwear, along with Mesolithic baskets and other tools, was first discovered back in 1857, when a cave in southern Spain was looted by miners. However, when the artifacts were first dated, in the 1970s, they were identified as being about 1,000 years more recent than this latest analysis found.

The very dry conditions within the cave were ideal for preserving perishable materials, the researchers said, and allowed the preservation of a prehistoric burial site complete with partially mummified corpses, accompanied by baskets, wooden tools, sandals and other goods.



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