Areni village as seen from Areni Church What is believed to be the world's oldest leather shoe, over 5,500 year old, has been found in a cave in Armenia by a team of archaeologists. The Armenian shoe is in a perfectly preserved condition and is a few hundred years older than the one found on Ötzi the Iceman , making it the oldest piece of leather footwear in the world, and the oldest footwear yet found in Europe. Researchers published details in the journal PLoS ONE . The leather shoe was found in a cave dubbed Areni-1, near the village of Areni in the Vayots Dzor province of Armenia, on the Iranian and Turkish borders. "I was amazed to find that even the shoe-laces were preserved," recalled Diana Zardaryan, the Armenian PhD student who made the discovery. "We thought initially that the shoe and other objects were about 600-700 years old because they were in such good condition," said co-author Dr. Ron Pinhasi from the University College Cork in Ireland. "It was only when the material was dated by the two radiocarbon laboratories in Oxford and in California that we realised that the shoe was a few hundred years older than the shoes worn by Ötzi the Iceman ". Currently, the oldest known footwear are sandals made from sagebrush bark, found in Fort Rock Cave , Oregon in the United States. These shoes were discovered in 1938, and have been dated to about 10,000 years before present. Discoveries within the cave move early bronze-age cultural activity in Armenia back by about 800 years. Additional discoveries yielded an extensive array of Copper Age artifacts dating to between 6,200 and 5,900 years ago.
 village as seen from What is believed to be the world's oldest leather shoe, over 5,500 year old, has been found in a cave in Armenia by a team of archaeologists. The is in a perfectly preserved condition and is a few hundred years older than the one found on , making it the oldest piece of leather footwear in the world, and the oldest footwear yet found in Europe. Researchers published details in the journal . The leather shoe was found in a cave dubbed Areni-1, near the village of in the province of Armenia, on the Iranian and Turkish borders. "I was amazed to find that even the shoe-laces were preserved," recalled Diana Zardaryan, the Armenian PhD student who made the discovery. "We thought initially that the shoe and other objects were about 600-700 years old because they were in such good condition," said co-author Dr. Ron Pinhasi from the in Ireland. "It was only when the material was dated by the two radiocarbon laboratories in and in California that we realised that the shoe was a few hundred years older than the shoes worn by ". Currently, the oldest known footwear are sandals made from sagebrush bark, found in , Oregon in the United States. These shoes were discovered in 1938, and have been dated to about 10,000 years before present. Discoveries within the cave move early bronze-age cultural activity in Armenia back by about 800 years. Additional discoveries yielded an extensive array of artifacts dating to between 6,200 and 5,900 years ago.
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Areni
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Areni Church
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Armenian shoe
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Areni in the Vayots Dzor
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Ötzi the Iceman
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Fort Rock Cave
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