Europe’s oldest pair of shoes found in Spanish bat cave

Pair of grasswoven sandals could be 6,000 years old

The remains of the sandals (University of Alcala )

Scientists have found what they believe are Europe’s oldest pair of shoes in a Spanish cave network populated by bats.

The discovery of the grass-woven sandals in Cueva de los Murciélagos, or the Cave of the Bats, in Andalusia shocked researchers, who believe they could be around 6,000 years old.

When miners started excavating the cave in the 19th century, they discovered a gallery that held partially mummified corpses, wild boar teeth and a unique gold crown. Some 76 of the surviving artefacts have now been analysed by scientists in Spain.

The objects “are the oldest and best-preserved set of plant fibre materials in southern Europe so far known.” the study’s co-author María Herrero Otal said.

“The technological diversity and the treatment of raw materials documented highlights the skill of prehistoric communities.”

According to the report, the Neolithic sandal set represents the “earliest and widest-ranging assemblage of prehistoric footwear, both in the Iberian Peninsula and in Europe”.

Scientists say they were well preserved thanks to the low humidity levels in the caves.

The cave was first accessed in 1831 by the owner of the surrounding lands who collected the abundant bat guano in the main chamber for fertilizer.

The shelter was also used to keep goats until the identification of a vein of galena led to its exploitation by a mining company in 1857.

Ten years after the discovery and subsequent looting, the cave was visited by the archaeologist Manuel de Góngora y Martínez who collected the testimonies of the miners regarding the artefacts, gathered the archaeological remains, and published accounts of them.

A rapid advance in dating techniques put the items more than 2,000 years older than previously thought.