The image we have of prehistoric man could change with a discovery that delays the birth of footwear by more than 130,000 years.
Did Stone Age hominids wear sandals? The analysis of different types of fossilized footprints or ichnites, discovered in South Africa, seems to confirm this.
The oldest known footwear, sandals, were found in Oregon (United States), and are about 10,000 years old.
Various types of footwear have been found in mummies from about 5,000 years ago, such as those of the pharaohs or the famous Ötzi, the Ice Man.
Prehistoric men with sandals
The problem with footwear is that it is made with leather or fabric, so it is not preserved over time, beyond a few thousand years, and only under special conditions, such as the absence of humidity, or freezing.
However, there is evidence, also through traces discovered in Greece and France, that Neanderthals could have worn shoes more than 100,000 years agoalthough there is debate about it.
The footprints that you can see in the photographs were found in Kleinkrantz and Goukamma, in South Africa, and in the surrounding stones They are between 73,000 and 148,000 years oldas explained by IFL Science:
Charles Helm
These prints show “rounded anterior ends, sharp margins, absence of toe marks, and possible evidence of leash attachment points,” according to the study. This would prove that they were wearing sandals.
We have an image of prehistoric hominids wearing skins and walking barefoot, but this image should perhaps change, because at least on some occasions, or some tribes, they wore sandals. In this case it could be due to the existence of sharp rocks and spiky sea urchins.
At that time, an infected foot wound could cause death. On the other hand, if these hominids already covered their bodies with skins to protect their private parts or avoid the cold, it seems logical to think that the same protective instinct would lead them to protect their feet in difficult terrain with skins, or the first sandals of the humanity.
The study does not call it evidence of the use of sandals, but rather evidence, because these traces are scarce and debatable. But science is about to push back the age of footwear by 140,000 years.