These 6,000-year-old sandals found in a Spanish cave are Europe’s oldest shoes

Issy Ronald, CNN
Fri, September 29, 2023

New analysis has identified the oldest shoes ever discovered in Europe, according to a study published this week in the journal Science Advances.

The 22 woven sandals date from 6,000 years ago, radiocarbon analysis found in the study led by researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Alcalá University in Spain.

The ancient footwear, along with Mesolithic baskets and other tools, was first discovered back in 1857, when a cave in southern Spain was looted by miners. However, when the artifacts were first dated, in the 1970s, they were identified as being about 1,000 years more recent than this latest analysis found.

The very dry conditions within the cave were ideal for preserving perishable materials, the researchers said, and allowed the preservation of a prehistoric burial site complete with partially mummified corpses, accompanied by baskets, wooden tools, sandals and other goods.

Baskets were also found in the cave. - Martínez-Sevillaet al.,Sci. Adv

The objects are “the oldest and best-preserved set of plant fiber materials in southern Europe so far known,” María Herrero Otal, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement, adding that they demonstrate “the ability of prehistoric communities to master this type of craftsmanship.”

When Spanish archaeologist Manuel de Góngora y Martínez visited the cave in 1867, 10 years after the looting, he gathered the remaining artifacts, including the sandals, and gave them to museums in Madrid and Granada, where they have been studied by researchers, the study added.

The sandals were made of grasses as well as other materials, including leather, lime and ramie bast, a type of natural fiber.

Using the descriptions provided by Góngora, the study hypothesizes that the bodies were buried wearing the sandals.

Some sandals had clear signs of wear, while others appeared never to have been worn, suggesting that some people had clothing made especially for their burial.

The researchers also studied several baskets and other wooden artifacts in the collection. These objects “open up groundbreaking perspectives on the complexity of Early-Middle Holocene populations in Europe,” they said, adding that most knowledge of past societies is drawn from durable artifacts rather than perishable ones such as baskets. The Holocene is the current geological epoch, which began 11,700 years ago.

Both the baskets and sandals suggest that the makers had an extended knowledge of the plant resources in the local environment as well as a high level of expertise, the researchers noted.

“The quality and technological complexity of the basketry makes us question the simplistic assumptions we have about human communities prior to the arrival of agriculture in southern Europe,” Francisco Martínez Sevilla, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement.

The study also found that the objects were deposited at the site at two very different times during the Early and Middle Holocene eras. The first phase was related to the Early Holocene hunter-gatherer populations, and the second phase to Middle Holocene farmers, researchers said.

Oldest-known shoes in European history found in Spanish bat cave

Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News
Fri, September 29, 2023 


New York Daily News/TNS


A pair of sandals woven from grass around 6,000 years ago and found in a Spanish cave are being hailed as the oldest-known footwear in Europe.

A fresh analysis of the ancient kicks discovered by 19th-century miners determined they were crafted during the Neolithic era, according to the journal Science Advances.

The shoes were woven during a period of time in which the human population grew globally and began making a significant impact on the planet, the journal Nature explained in a 2015 publication.

The footwear was found intact, thanks to the cool conditions in which they were stored in The Cueva de los Murciélagos — “The Cave of the Bats.”

Researcher María Herrero Otal says the find constitutes southern Europe’s “oldest and best preserved set of plant fibre materials” to date.

The sandals are estimated to be 500 years older than a leather shoe unearthed in an Armenian cave and tested in 2010, according to the BBC.

Dozens of other items including baskets and tools were also discovered where the grassy shoes were found in southern Spain’s Andalusia region. Testing on some of those findings concluded they were more than 9,000 years old.

The world's oldest shoes? Sandals found in bat cave are thousands of years old, study finds

Patrick Smith
Fri, September 29, 2023

Sandals buried in a bat cave in southern Spain may be the oldest footwear ever discovered in Europe, scientists said this week, estimating that they could be up to 6,200 years old.

Baskets, tools and the sandals found in the 19th century at a hunter-gatherer burial site in the Cueva de los Murciélagos, or “cave of the bats,” near the southern city of Granada, are much older than previously thought, a team examining the items said in an article in Science Advances journal on Wednesday.

The study used radiocarbon dating to date 76 items, including baskets and 22 sandals made from esparto, a kind of grass used in crafts across the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa for thousands of years.

The ancient humans crushed the grass to make twine to braid baskets, bags and sandals. The grass had to be dried for 20 to 30 days before it was rehydrated for 24 hours to make it pliable — a complex and skilled process.

Similar sandals found in Armenia are estimated to be 5,500 years old, while the shoes worn by “Ötzi the Iceman” — a prehistoric man found in Italy in 1991 — are dated to 5,300 years ago.

“The quality and technological complexity of the basketry makes us question the simplistic assumptions we have about human communities prior to the arrival of agriculture in southern Europe,” the study's leader, Francisco Martínez Sevilla, said in a news release.

Martínez Sevilla, of Spain’s University of Alcalá, added that the Cueva de los Murciélagos was a “unique site in Europe to study the organic materials of prehistoric populations.”



The sandals have no laces, but some had a single braid fixed to the middle which could be tied around the wearer’s ankle. Similar sandals from later periods found across Europe were made with other materials, not just grass.

“This sandal set therefore represents the earliest and widest-ranging assemblage of prehistoric footwear, both in the Iberian peninsula and in Europe, unparalleled at other latitudes,” the study said.

While some of the sandals showed marks from being worn, others were unused and could have been made for the dead, the study said.

The cave once housed burial goods from a huge swath of early human history, some possibly 9,500 years old.

A team of 20 experts from different disciplines, including geologists and historians, worked on the ongoing project.

The cave’s lack of humidity and its constant cooling wind made the items here the best preserved plant-based tools found in southern Europe. The same conditions have led to a huge number of important archaeological finds in the Middle East, particularly in caves around the Dead Sea.

The bat cave’s treasures were discovered in the 19th century but the new study is the first to fully shed light on their age and importance.

Ceramic fragments, flakes of flint and quartz, a polished ax head, as well as ornamental boar’s teeth and stone bracelets, were found at the site, most of which are now displayed in museums in Madrid and Granada. Questions persisted over the dating of the items until the first radiocarbon dating tests in the 1970s.

But scientists are more excited about the perishable, plant-based items, such as the sandals and baskets, which are rarely found in any condition.

“Plant material culture offers unique insights into the life of prehistoric societies. Lack of preservation has meant that perishable materials have not previously been extensively considered during archaeological research,” the research team said in the article.

The hugely important finds almost didn’t survive to be studied at all.

Miners entered the Cueva de los Murciélagos in 1857, before stumbling upon several partially mummified corpses. Much of the plant-based tools and baskets alongside them were burned and scattered around the site as a result of the mining, while the rest were given to people in the nearby village of Albuñol.

Ten years later, the archaeologist Manuel de Góngora y Martínez visited the cave and interviewed miners and villagers, preserving many items for future generations. The original location of the tools is forever lost, however, robbing archaeologists of crucial context. The human remains were not recovered.

“Despite the mining activity, this assemblage represents one of the oldest and best-preserved collections of hunter-gatherer basketry in southern Europe,” the research team said in the article.

Europe's oldest shoes found in Spanish caves

Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK
Fri, September 29, 2023 

Entrance to a cave.

Experts have found what they believe are the oldest shoes ever found in Europe, The Telegraph reported. The pair of "intricately-woven sandals made of grass", that date back more than 6,000 years, are among dozens of items that were discovered in a cave system in southern Spain, as scientists hunted for bat droppings. The shoes were preserved by the "very low humidity levels inside the cave", the paper added.
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A pair of sandals from the Stone Age reveals that ancient people were not immune to unfortunate fashion choices

Lloyd Lee
Fri, September 29, 2023 


Scientists have confirmed that sets of sandals found in a bat cave in southern Spain could be up to 6,200 years old. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

In the 19th century, miners found a hunter-gatherer burial site in a bat cave near Granada, Spain.


The items included baskets, a mallet, and sets of sandals.


Researchers now confirm that the items could be 9,500 to 6,200 years old.

It appears dads could have been making fashion faux pas even since the Stone Age.

Researchers recently confirmed a set of sandals that were discovered in a bat cave near Granada, Spain, in the 19th century could be up to 6,200 years old, according to a study published in Science Advances on Wednesday.

And they may be some of the earliest iterations of the shoes utilitarian and barbecuing dads and fashionistas have come to love.

The dating reveals evidence of basketry — the ancient craft of basket making — in hunter-gatherer communities in southern Europe during the Mesolithic period and the early Neolithic period when societies began to transition to agricultural ways of life.

A team of researchers from the University of Alcalá and the Autonomous University of Barcelona analyzed 76 objects, including baskets, mallets, and sandals, that were discovered by miners two centuries ago while in the bat cave, Cueva de los Murcielagos, a press release from the Barcelona school stated.

Scientists previously found that bones discovered in the same cave may have been modified to be used as tools and drinking cups.

Using carbon-14 dating, which allows scientists to determine the age of an organic material, the Alcalá and Barcelona researchers determined that the 76 objects were between 6,200 and 9,500 years old.

Although there has been evidence of basketry dating back tens of thousands of years, basket weaving is often not tied with the hunter-gatherer societies of the Mesolithic era and is more associated with a sedentary lifestyle offered through an agrarian culture that dominated the Neolithic period.

"The quality and technological complexity of the basketry makes us question the simplistic assumptions we have about human communities prior to the arrival of agriculture in southern Europe," Francisco Martínez Sevilla, a researcher from the University of Alcalá said in the press release.
Not exactly Nike Air

The sandals, a pair of which had been on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid, were made from crushed esparto grass which could have allowed the footwear to be flexible, according to the study.

One set of sandals is believed to have "a small group of fibers" that may have been meant to go between the first and second toes, the study said — much like the strap found on flip-flops.

Researchers also identified a "braid fixed to the middle of the sandal" that could have gone around the ankle.

"This sandal set therefore represents the earliest and widest-ranging assemblage of prehistoric footwear, both in the Iberian Peninsula and in Europe, unparalleled at other latitudes," the study said.

Some of the sandals showed signs of being worn, while others appeared unused, suggesting that some individuals had clothes prepared for them when they were buried, according to the study.

"The esparto grass objects from Cueva de los Murciélagos are the oldest and best-preserved set of plant fiber materials in southern Europe so far known," María Herrero Otal, a researcher and co-author of the study said in the press release. "The technological diversity and the treatment of the raw material documented demonstrates the ability of prehistoric communities to master this type of craftsmanship, at least since 9,500 years ago, in the Mesolithic period."

As to whether the sandals were rocked with socks — that fashion offense wouldn't appear until several millennia later.

Europe's oldest shoe found in Spanish bat cave

Mattea Bubalo - BBC News
Fri, September 29, 2023 

A mallet (L) and the remains of sandals were among the ancient artefacts discovered in the bat cave


Scientists say they have identified Europe's oldest shoes, sandals woven from grass thought to be around 6,000 years old.

They were among a haul of ancient objects discovered in a bat cave in Spain plundered by miners in the 19th Century, but were analysed in a new study.

Low humidity and cool winds in the cave kept them unusually well-preserved.

Researchers also analysed baskets and a set of tools.

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," she added.

New dating techniques used showed that the collection of 76 objects found in the cave was about 2,000 years older than was previously thought.

Some objects in the set date back 9,000 years.

The sandals that were analysed used different types of grass in their structure, researchers said, but also included other materials such as leather and lime.

They date to the Neolithic period, making them older than the 5,500-year-old leather shoes discovered in a cave in Armenia back in 2008.

The cave the 6,000-year-old sandals were found in was the Cueva de los Murciélagos, or the Cave of the Bats, in Andalusia, south-west Spain.

According to the researchers of this study, the cave was first accessed in 1831 by a landowner who collected bat guano, or droppings, used to make fertilizer.

Less than two decades later, it was used by miners who, while mining the cave, discovered a gallery that held partially mummified corpses, baskets, wooden tools, and among others - wild boar teeth and a unique gold diadem.

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

Barney Davis
Fri, September 29, 2023 


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.


Scientists say they've found Europe's oldest "prehistoric footwear"

Duarte Dias
Updated Fri, September 29, 2023

Scientists say grass sandals discovered in a cave in Spain are 6,200 years old, making them the oldest woven grass footwear ever discovered in Europe and forcing them to rethink "simplistic assumptions" about our human ancestors in the region.

The announcement came from a team that has been studying 76 objects found many years ago in a cave in southern Spain. Researchers from the Universidad de Alcalá and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona said the objects were the first direct evidence of basketry among hunter-gatherer societies and early agrarian communities in southern Europe.

Among the discoveries were baskets, sandals and organic tools made of reed and esparto grass. By studying the raw materials the objects were made of, the researchers were able to date them to the early and middle Holocene period, between 9,500 and 6,200 years ago.


"The quality and technological complexity of the basketry makes us question the simplistic assumptions we have about human communities prior to the arrival of agriculture in southern Europe," said Francisco Martínez Sevilla, a researcher in the Prehistory Department of the University of Alcalá.

María Herrero Otal, who co-authored the study, told CBS News the research offered "a unique opportunity to study social aspects of early human groups," because the type of fiber-based materials discovered are not typically recovered from archeological sites.

"It means that the use of esparto grass has started al least 9,500 years ago, and it is a tradition which is still live in Iberia [Spain and Portugal]," Otal told CBS. "It is spectacular how the techniques, the raw material and its preparation has 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 widest-ranging assemblage of prehistoric footwear, both in the Iberian Peninsula and in Europe, unparalleled at other latitudes," according to the study, which was published in the journal Science Advances.

The items were first discovered during mining activities in the Cueva de los Murciélagos, which translates literally as "cave of the bats," of Albuñol in Granada, Spain, during the 19th century. But the authors of this study concluded that the materials discovered were about 2,000 years older than previously thought.

According to researchers, the low level of humidity combined with the cool, dry winds inside the cave helped prevent bacteria from developing, which allowed the fiber-based objects to survive through the millennia.

The researchers said two types of footwear were discovered at the site, one with a consistent woven sole, and another with a harder "central core." While no laces were found with the first type, "for the central core type, a small group of fibers emanating from the base of the sole may have been placed between the first and second toes. These fibers are also connected to a braid fixed to the middle of the sandal, which could be tied around the ankle."