ARMENIA: World's oldest leather shoe discovered

Think of it as a kind of prehistoric Prada: archaeologists have discovered what they say is the world's oldest known leather shoe, writes Pam Belluck for The New York Times. Perfectly preserved under layers of sheep dung the shoe, made of cowhide and tanned with oil from a plant or vegetable, is about 5,500 years old, older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids, scientists say.

Leather laces crisscross through numerous leather eyelets, and the shoe was worn on the right foot. There is no word on the left shoe. It could have fit a small man or a teenager, but was most likely worn by a woman.

The shoe was discovered by scientists excavating in a huge cave in Armenia, part of a treasure trove of artefacts they found that experts say provide unprecedented information about an important and sparsely documented era: the Chalcolithic period or Copper Age, when humans are believed to have invented the wheel, domesticated horses and produced other innovations. The discovery was published last week in PLoS One, an online journal.
Full report on The New York Times site