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Oldest shoe found in British Iron Age well
Archaeologists have unearthed what they said is likely the oldest shoe ever found in Britain, a 2,000-year-old leather item discovered down an Iron Age well.
Archaeologists have unearthed what they said Tuesday is likely the oldest shoe ever found in Britain, a 2,000-year-old leather item discovered down an Iron Age well.
The shoe was found inside a hollowed tree trunk set into the ground at a quarry, near Wellington, Somerset, southwest England.
"As far as we know, this is the oldest shoe ever found in the UK. It is reasonably well-preserved, with stitch and lace holes still visible in the leather," said Stephen Reed, who led the archaeology team from University of Exeter.
The shoe is around 30 centimetres (12 inches) long, the equivalent of a modern size nine or 10 in Britain, a 43-45 in European measurements.
It was uncovered after quarrying began in the area, where a Saxon-era iron-smelting site had previously been discovered in 1989.
Near this site were two timber-built wells, one using a hollowed tree trunk set into the ground, which were preserved by waterlogging and thought to date to the early part of the Iron Age, from 700 BC to 43 AD.
"The importance about this shoe is that these sort of things don't really survive at all on the archaeological record, usually because they rot down," Reed said.
Most leather items disintegrate over several years, but the fact the area was constantly waterlogged had kept away the oxygen that would have caused decomposition.
"These finds are of national importance due to the rarity of the survival of wood from this period and the presence of diagnostic tool marks on the sides of the timber, which suggest it dates from the Iron Age," Reed said.
"The tree trunk was removed from the site so that its contents could be excavated under laboratory conditions," he added, saying that this was when the shoe was found.
Archaeologists do not know if the shoe was left in the well for symbolic reasons or simply lost in mud. They hope that further analysis will show its method of construction and identify from what animal the leather came.
