Scientists say grass sandals discovered in a cave in Spain are 6,200 years old, making them the oldest woven grass shoes ever discovered in Europe and forcing them to rethink “simplified assumptions” about our human ancestors in the region .
The announcement came from a team that examined 76 objects found in a cave in southern Spain many years ago. Researchers from the Universidad de Alcalá and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona said the objects represent the first direct evidence of basket weaving in hunter-gatherer societies and early agricultural communities in southern Europe.
Discoveries included baskets, sandals and organic tools made from reeds and esparto grass. By examining the raw materials from which the objects were made, researchers were able to date them to the early and middle Holocene period, 9,500 to 6,200 years ago.
A wooden mace and two types of sandals woven from esparto grass were found in a cave in southern Spain and are believed to be 6,200 years old, according to researchers. MUTERMUR project
“The quality and technological complexity of basketry makes us question the simplistic assumptions about human communities before the arrival of agriculture in southern Europe,” said Francisco Martínez Sevilla, a researcher in the Department of Prehistory at the University of Alcalá.
María Herrero Otal, co-author of the study, told CBS News the research offers “a unique opportunity to study social aspects of early human groups” because the type of fiber-based materials discovered are not typically recovered from archaeological sites.
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“This means that the use of esparto began at least 9,500 years ago and is a tradition that is still alive in the Iberian Peninsula.” [Spain and Portugal]”Otal told CBS. “It is spectacular how the techniques, the raw material and its production have been used for thousands of years and there are still people working in the same way.”
The sandals discovered in the cave represent “the earliest and most extensive assemblage of prehistoric footwear in both the Iberian Peninsula and Europe, unparalleled at other latitudes,” says the study, published in the journal Science Advances.
Interior of the Cueva de los Murciélagos de Albuñol, Granada, Spain. Blas Ramos Rodriguez
The items were first discovered in the 19th century during mining activities in the Cueva de los Murciélagos, which literally translates to “Cave of the Bats,” in Albuñol in Granada, Spain. However, the authors of this study concluded that the materials discovered were about 2,000 years older than previously thought.
According to the researchers, the low humidity combined with the cool, dry winds in the cave helped prevent the development of bacteria, allowing the fiber-based objects to survive for millennia.
The researchers said two types of shoes were discovered at the site, one with a uniform woven sole and another with a harder “center core.” While no laces were found in the first type, “in the central core type, a small group of fibers extending from the base of the sole may have been placed between the first and second toes. These fibers are also connected to a braid that is attached to the middle of the sandal that you can tie around your ankle.”