This NYTimes article labeled this 5,500 year-old find as the world's oldest shoe, discovered in a cave in Armenia. It is dated back to the important and sparsely documented Chalcolithic era, or Copper Age, when humans are believed to have invented the wheel, domesticated horses and produced other innovations. Although the cave is full of apparently killer finds, archeologically speaking that is, such as intentionally dried fruits (prunes, apricots and grapes -- the original raisin?), winemaking tools, and signs of ritualistic practices (such as dissected brain tissue), "the larger importance, though, is where the site itself becomes significant. You have the transition really into the modern world, the precursor to the kings and queens and bureaucrats and pretty much the whole nine yards," says Mitchell Rothman, an anthropologist and Chalcolithic expert at Widener University who is not involved in the expedition. Separate laboratories dated the leather to 3653 to 3627 B.C., which incidentally pre-dates Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic period by a mere 50 years.
Wow.
And here is where we are today in the world of fashonistas with Jimmy Choo ($695), Manolo Blahnik ($3,145) and Prada (who knows how much?!) in that order:
I am not quite sure if we have evolved or devolved.
But then, here is what I think is a beautiful shoe
(note, I did not say practical):
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