Unusual Ancient Footprints, Child's Shoe from Ice Age Found in Austria

Unusual prehistoric footprints and an ice age child's shoe were discovered by scientists in Austria.

Ancient Footprints and a Shoe

A child's shoe dating from the Iron Age that is unusually well preserved has been discovered in Austria.

German Mining Museum in Bochum archaeologists uncovered the discovery while conducting excavations at Dürrnberg near Hallein, a location where rock salt was once mined during the Iron Age.

According to a news release, the most recent find--an "extremely well-preserved" child's shoe--is thought to be older than 2,000 years.

It is thought that the salt found in the region helped to preserve it. The complete shoe's form, along with the string used to secure it to the child's foot, is still discernible.

It is constructed of leather and is the same size as a modern child's 12.5 shoe.

According to Thomas Stoellner, the chairman of the research department, their research at Dürrnberg has been supplying them with useful discoveries for decades so that they can scientifically investigate the first mining activities.

The discovered shoe is in amazing shape.

Organic compounds typically disintegrate over time, according to Stoellner.

Iron Age miners' daily lives can be gleaned from extremely uncommon discoveries like this child's shoe. They offered useful data for scientific research.

Iron Age Lifestyle

Because of how well it was preserved, the discovery is highly uncommon. Iron Age shoes had already been discovered, but the press release noted that the child's shoe is particularly noteworthy since it provided proof that kids stayed or worked underground at this time.

Archaeologists can date the shoe to the second century BC based on its design.

The Iron Age is believed to have started in Central and Western Europe at the turn of the first millennium BC and came to a conclusion with the conquests by Rome during the first century BC.

Iron tools and weaponry were produced during this time period to replace their bronze counterparts.

The archaeologists uncovered other significant discoveries in addition to the shoe. They also discovered a wooden shovel and what might have been a fur hood nearby.

In the following years, excavations in the vicinity will continue in the hopes of educating researchers about the lives of Iron Age miners.

Other Ancient Footwear Discoveries

The earliest evidence of footwear use before this study was two footprints left by Neanderthal kids in a Greek cave 130,000 years ago.

Although these cases are up for debate, other Neanderthal traces in France have also been regarded as proof of shod feet.

The study authors note that traces found in Nevada in the 1880s were originally believed to have been created by a person wearing sandals but later proved to have been made by a huge sloth, illustrating the complexity of such investigations.

The researchers said that in this instance, expert paleontologists originally mistook non-hominin sloth tracks for those of shod hominins since they are substantially distinct from those of barefoot hominins.

The authors pass up the chance to make any significant assertions about their findings because they don't want to make such inadequate claims.

However, based on their investigations, they postulate that, during the Middle Stone Age, humans might have worn footwear when navigating dune surfaces.