Posted on 01/25/2008 2:21:03 PM PST by blam
Earliest Shoe-Wearers Revealed by Toe Bones
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
Shod? Look at the Toes Jan. 25, 2008 -- People started wearing shoes around 40,000 years ago, according to a study on recently excavated small toe bones that belonged to an individual from China who apparently loved shoes.
Most footwear erodes over time. The earliest known shoes, rope sandals that attached to the feet with string, date to only around 10,000 B.C. For the new study, the clues were in middle toe bones that change during an individual's lifetime if the person wears shoes a lot.
"When you walk barefoot, your middle toes curl into the ground to give you traction as you push off," explained co-author Erik Trinkaus, who worked on the study with Hong Shang.
"If you regularly wear Nikes, moccasins or any other type of shoe, you actually wind up pushing off with your big toe, with less force going through the middle toes," added Trinkaus, a Washington University anthropologist who is one of the world's leading experts on early human evolution.
Small toe bones are rare in the archaeological record, so Trinkaus and Hong jumped at the chance to study the 40,000-year-old skeleton, which was found in Tianyuan Cave near Zhoukoudian, China.
They also analyzed a recently found 27,500-year-old Russian skeleton with middle toe bones, as well as Neanderthal and modern Puebloan and Inuit skeletons, also with such bones.
The findings have been accepted for publication in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
The researchers determined that both the Chinese and Russian individuals had more lightly built middle toe bones relative to their body size. The Russian skeleton was also found with other individuals who had an abundance of ivory beads around their ankles and feet, suggesting these individuals likely wore some fairly flashy shoes. To test the toe theory, the scientists conducted similar analysis on the more modern samples. The habitually barefoot Native American Puebloan possessed much more robust middle toe bones.
The shoe-wearing Inuit, who had a very active lifestyle, possessed semi-sturdy middle toe bones, while the Neanderthal, with ultra hefty middle toe bones, showed no signs of having worn shoes.
Trinkaus explained to Discovery News that the date of the first footwear corresponds with an important time in human history.
"A cultural evolution was starting," he said of the Paleolithic period. "We start to see all kinds of changes, such as more elaborate toolkits and the beginnings of art. The findings about footwear are another piece in the puzzle."
Trenton Holliday, an associate professor of anthropology at Tulane University, told Discovery News that the toe bone comparison between ancient and more modern groups "gives credence to Trinkaus' position that one can determine whether prehistoric groups were shod, at least with rigid-soled shoes, by examining the robusticity of the [bones] of their lesser toes."
Holliday, however, doubts that Neanderthals were completely shoe-free.
"Considering that they lived in Europe primarily during glacial periods, I find it highly improbable that they did not wear some type of footwear, so what I think is most likely is that they wore some type of soft wraps on their feet that did not alter their locomoter biomechanics of their feet the way a stiff-soled shoe would," Holliday said.
Trinkaus agrees with Holliday's Neanderthal theory, although he suggested Neanderthals might have frequently gone barefoot too.
"Some individuals even today still don't wear shoes and live in very cold environments, such as in the hills of Eastern Bulgaria and Romania," he said.
GGG Ping.
I am quite literally allergic to shoes.
More neanderthal genes, I fear.
“”Some individuals even today still don’t wear shoes...”
So much for evolution.
When you look at it, the known Story of Civilization should actually be the Story of Those Who Built with Stone or Clay. You really have to wonder what civilizations could have predated the Egyptions or Sumarians, but simply didn’t build with a material that lasted long enough for us to find their traces.
Is it the shoes or the glues and chemicals used in the shoes?
Had a nephew with a similar problem which was solved by 100 all leather sewn together boots with no glues or fabrics inside.
Cool! (Nice bones too.)
We call them "Kucinich voters."
There was probably a really neat, advanced civilization of ancient ice sculptors. Oh, well.
Big cave women in tight shoes?
Dunno - got tested for all that, no allergic reaction.
But if I wear shoes, my feet break out in a horrible case of eczema.
So what do you do?
(barefoot and yes, pregnant, most of my life)
Barefoot whenever possible - if I go to a meeting, I drive barefoot, put on shoes, do the meeting, take off shoes as soon as I leave.
Doesn’t this ruin it all for hippies?
******************
Must have been a woman. :)
Grog Bundy: "A big cave woman came into the shoe store today....."
The words “medical profile” work wonders in the modern corporate world.
Not something I am proud of - I refused to do it for years, and wound up very sick as a result.
In my own office, the powers-that-be have accepted that I have a physical, if somewhat silly and wierd, physical limitation.
And, when I meet with customers, I wear shoes.
I am not very comfortable with having to go barefoot, but the alternative is BAD.
So, you do what you have to.
I was thinking more along the lines of people who built with wood.
Is it eczema or more like tiny itchy blisters?
I certainly understand, I have some weird and scary allergic reactions that curtail my life. But what ya gonna do, you learn to live with them.
The doctors say “atopic dermititus” - eczema - and yes, tiny itchy blisters that grow.
I saw a movie depicting that. It was an amazing civilization - all the women were as hot as Victoria Vetri.
Exactly. And, let’s face it, maybe God meant for me to just be a barefoot neanderthal - I dunno.
;)
hummmmm..... are you a redhead?
Red beard. My son is a full-fledged redhead. In my case, born white blond, turned mouse brown overnight when I was twelve.
Like a deer.
My younger son did the exact same thing, it was wierd to watch.
In the summer, when my hands get hot, I get tiny blisters between my fingers that itch enough to make me cry.
If I rinse my hands with “Distilled extract of Witch Hazel- Alcohol 14%”, within a half hour the itch is gone the blisters start disappearing.
It was a miracle find for me. It doesn’t prevent the blisters but now I can deal with it.
And THAT reinforces an idea I have been nurturing for years - I think that I am allergic to my own sweat.
Which would explain why the which hazel works for you.
And why shoes don’t work for me.
Exactly. I am convinced of it, too. Just waiting for the next ice age, so I can be comfortable...
Could be!
.Those are underwater.
There you go...I think you solved it.
and white-haired ole grannys sitting at computers in the very cold state of Maine
I don’t mind being called a neanderthal, I mind being called some sort of dirty liberal hippy.
I mean, just because I am so conservitive that I have not adapted to SHOES - does not make me a liberal.
And yes, we heat our house with fire, thankyouverymuch!
heheheh.
But, the world is only 4000 year old....
Yeah, I read that back during the last Ice Age the Black Sea was a fresh water inland lake that was much smaller than it is today, and the Mediterannian was also much lower in water level.
Then when the Ice Age ended, the Med started filling up and then broke through and filled up what is now the Black Sea. Since civilizations tend to hug shorelines, they ought to calculate where those ancient shorelines were, and then dive down there and start checking things out.
Humans live on the edge - when the tiger comes, run in the water.
When the shark comes, run on the land.
That is why waterfront property is STILL so valuable.
ummm - I have an acquaintance whose whole career is Underwater Archeology in the Mediterranean
It was much more catastrophic than that.
"This area when above water would have been twice the size of India, and included what we now call Indo-China, Malaysia and Indonesia. The South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand and the Java Sea, formed the connecting parts.
The amazing part = He gets paid to do it, lol.
Can you wear socks or mukluk type slippers?
Yes, and I do.
Years ago I read an article that addressed how fashion distorted the human body - women deforming themselves to attain that “wasp-waist” look in the 1890s, etc. The writer asked, in effect, “When is a deformity not a deformity?”. He referred to our big toe as another example.
Pictures/statues of barefoot or sandaled people, ancient or modern, showed big toes that were straight. People who wore shoes all their lives had them bent inward from the shoes design. Since most of us wear shoes, and all have “bent” big toes, we don’t consider them “deformed”. (Brings to mind that old classic Twilight Zone episode.)
Japanese people showed a wide gap between the front and second toes because of the “shower shoe” design of their ethnic footwear.
Moving to the other end of the body, consider all the celebreties, et al who cosmetically had a gap inserted between their upper front teeth (which probably matches the gap between their ears).
Has anyone ever hypothesized what it might be if it isn’t allergies? For example, is it better or worse if you have socks on? Is it perhaps the pressure against the skin? Or perhaps maybe the lack of oxygen flow against the skin? If you wear sandals do you just get the problem where the straps were on your skin? Is it your entire foot (sides and bottom)? Does it matter what the shoe is made from or do all shoes cause this? What about an all-cotton shoe? If you wear tight clothing that isn’t breathable and you sweat, do you get the same skin problems that you see on your feet?
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Thanks Blam. |
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“What civilizations could have pre-dated the Egyptians or Sumarians?”According to the renowned expert,the Rev Al Sharpton:”While they were building the pyramids,we(europeans)were still living in caves.”Note:accurate quote but liberal dose of sarc intended:)Seriously-from what i understand(amateur opinion)it’s very likely there are even older civilizations(pre-dating Egypt and Sumaria),but they’re under water.Specifically in the area of the Mediteranian and around the coast of England.
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