Archaeologists discover 2,000-year-old child’s shoe with laces intact

CNN — A shoe belonging to a child and dating back more than 2,000 years has been unearthed in Austria with its laces still intact. The design of the leather shoe, whose size roughly corresponds to EU 30, suggests it was likely made in the second century BC, according to the German Mining Museum Bochum-Leibniz Research Museum for Geo-resources. The shoe was excavated by archaeologists in the western village of Dürrnberg, where rock salt mining took place from as early as the Iron Age, it said in a recent news release. The condition of the shoe found is outstanding,” Professor Thomas Stoellner, head of the Research Department at the German Mining Museum, said in the news release. Finds like this child’s shoe, but also textile remains or excrement like those found on Dürrnberg, offer an extremely rare insight into the life of Iron Age miners.”