The World’s Oldest Leather Shoe

The world’s oldest leather shoes were, until recently, the pair found with the body of Ötzi, the famous Iceman, dated at about 5,300 years ago. But a cave in Armenia has yielded a leather shoe that is about 200 years older than Ötzi’s footwear.

The shoe, actually more of a moccasin, appears to be made of cowhide cut in a single piece and laced together with leather thongs. It is relatively small (U.S. women’s size 7 or a European size 37), and may have been worn by a woman, a small man, or a teenager.
The shoe is remarkably similar to footwear worn until the 1950s in the Aran Islands west of Ireland, and also to a traditional Balkan shoe known as an opanke, which is still worn as part of traditional costumes worn at regional festivals. Researchers say that nearly identical shoes were worn across Europe over the course of thousands of years.

The shoe is currently housed at the Institute of Archaeology in Yerevan, but may be sent to either Switzerland or Germany to be properly preserved and then returned to Armenia.

Strictly speaking, while this shoe, along with Ötzi’s shoe, are the oldest still in existence at this time, there is evidence based on the weakening of small toe bones in ancient fossils that indicate humans may have been wearing shoes as long as 40,000 years ago. It is highly unlikely, however, that shoes that old would have survived, so for the time being, at least, the Armenian shoes hold the record as the world’s oldest leather shoes.

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World’s Oldest (Still Burning) Neon Light

Somebody forgot to turn out the light. Then they built a wall that covered it up. That was more than 70 years ago.

It might have stayed hidden forever, but the new owner of the fabled Clifton’s Cafeteria in Los Angeles, California decided to undertake a massive restoration of the old building. There, behind a wall in the first floor women’s restroom, workmen removed a panel and discovered the bulb. To everyone’s surprise, it was still burning.

The new owner, Andrew Meieran, believes the light was installed in 1935 when the building was being re-decorated as a forest-themed restaurant. Neon panels were installed to light translucent forest murals throughout the restaurant, including the restrooms.
At some point in the restaurant’s history, the restroom was partitioned in order to create a storage area. The light’s nook was covered over in plastic and plywood, then forgotten. Now that it has been rediscovered, Mr. Meieran plans to place a replica transparency over it.

Experts say that neon lights rarely survive for more than 40 years, and agree that this particular light may be the oldest of its kind in the world. Mr. Meieran speculates that the hidden bulb may have cost as much as $17,000 over the estimated 77 years of its life.

If you’d like to see a great series of photos of the light and learn a little more about the history of Clifton’s Cafeteria, visit here