A well-preserved leather shoe reported to be a few hundred years older than the leather shoes worn by Otzi the Iceman has been discovered in a pit in a cave in Armenia. “Enormous similarities exist between the manufacturing technique and style of this (Armenian) shoe and those found across Europe at later periods, suggesting that this type of shoe was worn for thousands of years across a large and environmentally diverse region,” said Ron Pinhasi of University College Cork.  Sheep dung is responsible for the remarkable preservation of the 5,500-year-old shoe.  Here’s a photograph of the cave where the shoe was discovered.

Discovery News has an excellent slideshow, narrated by Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Edwin van den Brink, on the 3,500-year-old Canaanite religious vessels unearthed in northern Israel.  

Archaeologists working ahead of road crews in Orange County, California, uncovered an 1,800-year-old burial of a small dog. The dog had been covered with a stone bowl. “It might have been just a pet burial. But it could be destruction of property. It was common to kill the dog along with burning or destroying any other personal property upon the death of the owner,” said Paul E. Langenwalter II of Biola University.  

An excavation planned for this summer in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, could yield artifacts from the Revolutionary War. Some 800 American soldiers guarded the Clove Road site during the Battle of Brooklyn.  

Tourists may one day be able to scuba dive on the ruins of Cleopatra’s palace in the harbor at Alexandria.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, June 10, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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