SAEDNEWS: The Oldest Known Sandals Come from Oregon, But Older Footwear May Exist
According to Saednews, Scientists have discovered many ancient shoes around the world, including 5,500-year-old leather footwear in Armenia, 6,200-year-old woven sandals in Spain, and shoes dating back 8,300 years in Missouri.
But when did humans actually invent shoes? Answering this question is difficult because the materials used to make footwear, such as animal hides, plant fibers, and other organic materials, usually decay over time. The oldest known shoes are more than 10,000 years old, but fossilized footprints suggest that our ancestors may have been using some form of footwear much earlier.
According to Thomas Connolly, director of archaeological research at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon, the oldest shoes that researchers have directly dated are a pair of sandals approximately 10,400 years old, discovered in Fort Rock Cave in central Oregon.
Archaeologists began excavating Fort Rock Cave in 1938 and uncovered dozens of sandals woven from sagebrush bark and other plant fibers. Connolly explained that similar footwear has been found at nearly a dozen sites across the northern and western Great Basin, an arid region of the United States located between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains.
“Overall, these shoes were extremely well made, with flat soles and coverings designed to protect the feet,” Connolly said.
Researchers who spoke with Indigenous communities in Oregon, including the Klamath and Northern Paiute peoples, found that woven footwear was traditionally used during winter, especially for working around cold marshes and lakes.
Although these sandals were porous, their fibers helped retain body heat and keep feet warm, even when they became wet. Connolly explained that ethnographer Samuel Barrett learned through conversations with the Klamath people that woven shoes allowed them to walk through extremely cold wetlands during winter with relative comfort.
A collection of human remains discovered in Nevada, known as the Spirit Cave mummy, may contain footwear older than the Fort Rock Cave sandals. Connolly said this approximately 10,600-year-old mummy was found wearing moccasins made from deer hide. However, scientists have not directly dated the shoes themselves.
Although these examples represent the oldest confirmed footwear discovered so far, evidence suggests that shoes may have been invented much earlier.
According to a 2023 study, fossilized footprints found on a beach in South Africa may represent tracks made by people wearing shoes, possibly dating back around 150,000 years.
When Charles Helm, a researcher at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa, and his colleagues analyzed the fossil footprints, they noticed that they resembled human tracks but lacked visible toe impressions. This absence suggested that whoever created the footprints may have been wearing footwear.
“There is something remarkable about the idea that our ancestors developed the ability to make and wear shoes so long ago,” Helm said. “At that time, just as today, protection from injury and extreme temperatures was probably the main motivation for creating footwear.”
However, researchers have not discovered any direct fossil remains of these ancient shoes. Helm explained that the organic materials used to create early footwear may have disappeared over time, meaning scientists must rely on other forms of evidence.
In their 2023 study, researchers examined sandals worn by modern San communities in the Kalahari Desert to help imagine what ancient footwear may have looked like. They also studied 2,000-year-old San rock art that depicts a shaman wearing shoes.
Helm and his colleagues created different types of footwear and used them to produce tracks in beach sand along the southern coast of South Africa. They found that shoes with an open design and hard soles produced footprints that most closely matched the fossilized tracks found in the region.
The findings suggest that humans may have been protecting their feet with footwear tens of thousands of years earlier than previously believed. While the oldest surviving shoes are only about 10,000 years old, the history of human footwear may stretch far deeper into the distant past.
