From Ananova: Prehistoric ‘shoes’ better than modern hiking boots.
Prehistoric ‘shoes’ made out of bearskin and hay are better for mountain walks than modern hiking boots, claims an expert.
Shoe specialist Petr Hlavacek has been studying the shoes found on the feet of a prehistoric iceman whose mummified body was found in an Alpine glacier in 1991.
Mr Hlavacek, who reconstructed a pair of the shoes, said they kept the foot at an optimal temperature, allowed sweat to evaporate and dried quickly if they got wet. [continue]
If someone were to sell shoes made on that ancient model, I think I'd have to try a pair.
Somehow I missed this story during my scan of Ananova yesterday, but David over at Cronaca didn't; I found the link on his site. Cronaca is full of fascinating things at the moment: Bronze Age flood control in Somerset, Leonardo's topography, and Wellcome medical history collection, for example. Well worth a read, as are all the blogs listed in on the right side of the Mirabilis.ca home page.
(PDA users: you can view the list of links to other blogs here.)
Posted on June 21, 2003 09:46 AM. Filed under: history & archaeology.