About 5,500 years ago, someone in the mountains of Armenia put his best foot forward in what is now the oldest leather shoe ever found
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Oldest leather shoe steps out after 5,500 years
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It'll never be confused with a penny loafer or a track shoe, but the well-preserved footwear was made of a single piece of leather, laced up the front and back, researchers reported in a journal of the Public Library of Science.
Worn and shaped by the wearer's right foot, the shoe was found in a cave along with other evidence of human occupation.
The shoe had been stuffed with grass, which dated to the same time as the leather of the shoe -- between 5,637 and 5,387 years ago.
Previously the oldest leather shoe discovered in Europe or Asia was on the famous Otzi, the "Iceman" found frozen in the Alps a few years ago and now preserved in Italy.
Otzi has been dated to 5,375 and 5,128 years ago, a few hundred years more recent than the Armenian shoe.
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