How old do you think the world’s oldest shoe is? Just take a guess. Wrong! Try 5,500 years. And allegedly this is it. Ooooor a man holding a bear turd.

Created more than 5,500 years ago at the dawn of civilisation this perfectly preserved brown leather lace-up is the oldest shoe in the world.
It was created from a piece of cow hide 1,000 years before the Great Pyramid of Giza and stitched together with leather thread.

The size 4 shoe – discovered buried in a cave in Armenia – is so well preserved that its lace is still intact.

Archaeologists say it probably belonged to a woman who deliberately buried it in the cave during a mysterious ritual. The cave also contained three pots, each containing a child’s skull, along with containers of barley, wheat and apricot.

Ah yes, the old burying a shoe with a bunch of children’s skulls ritual. They used to do that to ward off sabertooth tiger attacks. Or was it to appease the volcano god? I can’t remember. Whatever the case: women and their shoes, amirite?! I’m totally making a documentary: 5,500 Years of Obsession. It’s gonna be about me banging mastadons.

Hit the jump for a couple closeups.

Source: Geekologie