Clues to shoes

Natural History, Sept, 2005 by Caitlin E. Cox

When did people become the only animals that regularly wear shoes? The oldest well-dated surviving footwear--North American sandals made of plant fibers or leather--is 9,000 years old. Earlier shoes have decayed; their existence must be extrapolated from figurines, footprints, and remnants of burial goods. To peer farther into footwear's past, says Erik Trinkaus, a physical anthropologist at Washington University in Saint Louis, one must look at feet. A bare foot in direct contact with the ground depends more on the four small toes for traction and weight distribution than it does when supported by a shoe. Thus the small toes of the habitually unshod be come stronger and bigger than those of the habitually shod.

Trinkaus examined toes from the remains of Neanderthals between 75,000 and 40,000 years old, Middle Paleolithic modern humans about 100,000 years old, and Upper Paleolithic modern humans between 28,000 and 20,000 years old. He found that, compared with the remains of several groups of recent humans whose footwear habits are known, Neanderthal toes were several times more robust than modern toes. Robustness declined most rapidly between the Middle Paleolithic and the midpoint of the Upper Paleolithic. As early as 28,000 years ago, Trinkaus concludes, people had begun to wear shoes on a regular basis. (Journal of Archaeological Science 32:1515-26, 2005)