First leather shoe
Who
a 5,500-years-old leather shoe
What
-5500 first
Where
Armenia (Vayots Dzor (province))
When
2008
The earliest leather shoe is 5,500 years old and was discovered by archaeologists in the Areni-1 cave, in the south-eastern Vayotoz Dzor province of Armenia in 2008. The shoe, made of a single piece of hide leather and shaped to fit the wearer's foot, is 24.5 cm (0.8 ft 10 in) long, complete and well preserved thanks to the thick layer of sheep dung in which it was covered and the stable, cool and dry conditions in the cave. Although the Areni-1 finding is the earliest example of a leather shoe, sandals made from plant fibres found at the Arnold Research Cave in Missouri, USA, pre-date the shoes from Areni by some 2,000-2,500 years.