Archive for the ‘Shoe Repair’ Category
The First Shoes
Believe it or not, shoes have been around for more than ten thousand years. The oldest shoes that archaeologists have found were discovered beneath a layer of lava ash deposited by a 7500 year old volcano says a report from the University of Oregon. These shoes were carbon dated and different sets found in different caves in the region have been found to range from 10,500- 9,300 years old. The first footwear consisted of sagebrush bark woven into cords which were then wrapped into the sole of a sandal. Another twist of bark was used to secure the sandal to the foot. As shoes go, that was a fairly simple shoe, but would have taken some significant time effort to produce. Multiple pairs of these ten thousand year old shoes have been found in multiple caves, all in the same general area and all dating to the same range in age.
The place where these early shoes were found will surprise most people. Most would guess ancient Egypt or perhaps China. In both cases, those guesses would not only be incorrect, but would actually be on the wrong continent. The first known examples of footwear were found in caves in the area of Fort Rock caldera in Oregon. This region, during the period in which the shoes were made, would have been emerging from an ice age. Scientists believe the glaciers retreated from most of the United States between 10,000-15,000 years ago. So it is not clear if these sandals were made to protect the feet from snow and ice, or if there were also some sort of more substantial hide boots that simply did not survive through the ages for us to find. The Fort Rock sandals protected only the bottom of the feet, and would not have provided warmth or protection from frostbite in snow.
Between the Fort Rock shoes and the next instance of shoes that we find in history many ages passed. It was not until about 5000 years later that shoes were made by the Egyptians that survived in burial chambers and tombs. Because shoes may be made of animal skins or other light materials that may not easily survive thousands of years for us to find them, the record of footwear development may be quite incomplete. Many of the indigenous peoples of today who live in arctic regions, wear boots made of sealskin or reindeer skin. If any people lived in Northern areas where snow remained on the ground for any significant part of the year, it is almost certain that they had boots of some kind.
We may never be entirely certain of exactly when shoes were invented and where because of the possibility that they simply didn’t survive to be found. With the Fort Rock shoes firmly in hand, and the certainty of carbon dating on several pair from different locations, we can ne sure that shoes were worn as early as 10,000 years ago in what is now Oregon.