5,500 year-old shoe preserved in sheep shit

Archaeologists have made an amazing discovery in an Armenian cave.

Most students have seen some pretty festering trainers in their time, but nothing can come close to this 5,500 year old shoe, preserved in amazing condition after being covered in thick layer of sheep dung.

Discovered by archaeologists in a cave in Armenia, the leather shoe is 400 years older than Stonehenge, and pre-dates the Pyramids of Giza by a staggering 1,000 years. When it was first discovered, researchers presumed the shoe was around 600-700 years old because it was in such good condition, but back in the laboratory they were shocked to discover it was actually thousands of years older

The shoe itself is made from leather and stuffed with grass, possibly to keep the wearer's foot warm. It is the equivalent of a UK size 5, and archaeologists are unsure whether it would originally have been worn by a man or woman. Incredibly though, this is not the world's oldest shoe - sandals found in a Missouri cave in 1998 pre-date this finding by around 2,500 years.

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