The first shoes are probably 40,000 years old

Recent anthropological research has revealed that humans began wearing shoes about 40,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought.

Clothing says a lot about the wearer. Now, anthropologists are looking for physical changes caused by wearing shoes to visualize when shoes become fashionable.

Turns out, clothes really make people, at least for feet. That's because wearing shoes changes the way people walk and how their body weight is distributed.If you wear shoes regularly, like most people today, these changes reflect on bones and ligaments.

Susan Cachel, an anthropologist at Đh Rutgers, New Jersey, said science has known about the effect of foot-wear on foot since the beginning of the 20th century. Researchers have discovered many differences between those who wear casual shoes. piercing and people not.

For example, wearing tight shoes leads to swelling in the big toe, which is painful swelling of the bone or tissue in the big toe. Those who do not wear shoes have larger legs and larger distances between the thumb and fingers. Women who wear high heels will have smaller leg muscles.

(Photo: flickr.com)

Erik Trinkaus, anthropologist at Washington University, St. Louis, the first person to apply this knowledge about fashion changes the human body to anthropology. He discovered a moment in human history that the size of the toe bones began to shrink. Combining the data with the knowledge of shoes that influence the way people walk, Trinkaus explains that small toe bones mean that people have started wearing shoes.

While the oldest shoes still today are about 10,000 years old, Trinkaus's findings push back the time to accept shoes to 30,000 years. He published his research in 2005. Currently, thanks to the analysis that will be published in July 2008 in the Journal of Archaeological Sciene, Trinkaus discovered that the time of human wearing shoes could be much longer. 40,000 years ago.

Thick bones - thin bones

Trinkaus's hypothesis is based on a simple fact: Bone size is not affected by stone.

Tim Weaver, a University of California anthropologist, said: 'Bone, at least to some extent, responds to mechanical effects in a lifetime. For example, if you practice in the gym, not only your muscles are bigger but your bones are also thicker. '

In most human history, humans have large, thick toe bones. Trinkaus thinks that this is because they go, climb and carry more than we do today. In fact, all their leg bones are bigger, for the same reason. This is true for even the earliest Neanderthals and modern humans.

But, about 40,000 years ago, this began to change. Trinkaus noticed that bones from this time still had thick, strong leg bones but their fingers became smaller . 'They have small toes. I tried to figure out what took away the pressure on my fingers, not on my feet, the answer was shoes.'

The first shoes, the first tailors

While Weaver agrees with Trinkaus's hypothesis, Cachel is not convinced. She pointed out that not long after the time of Trinkaus's research, humans obviously stopped working and all limbs, not just toes, began to shrink.

'If the foot bones are smaller, this may reflect less travel and physical activity than the invention of shoes.'

Both Weaver and Cachel think it makes sense to think that shoes appear at a time when Trinkaus suggested. About 40,000 and 30,000 years ago, human culture flourished.

Weaver said, 'Archaeological evidence shows many changes, including the type of tools people use and the first artworks, even the earliest needles used to make clothes appear shortly afterwards. . '

And Cachel said this was probably a time of population explosion for labor division, meaning that for the first time, someone could spend all their time making better, more sophisticated clothes.

'It seems reasonable to have a change in footwear around this time. But before Erik Trinkaus's work we do not have direct evidence. '