Humans Have Worn Shoes for Nearly 40,000 Years
A recent study finds shoes first came into widespread use between 40,000 and 26,000 years ago, according to a
Humans'
small toes became weaker during this time, says physical anthropologist
Erik Trinkaus, PhD, who has studied scores of early human foot bones.
He
attributes this anatomical change to the invention of rugged shoes that
reduced our need for strong, flexible toes to grip and balance.
The research is presented in the July issue of Journal of Archaeological Science.
The development of footwear appears to have affected the four so-called "lesser" toes - excepting the big toe.
Ancient footwear
While
early humans living in cold northern climates may have begun covering
up their feet to insulate them as early as 500,000 years ago,
protective footwear comparable to modern-day shoes is thought to be a
much later innovation. It
has been difficult for archaeologists to determine exactly when humans
stopped going barefoot, however, because the plant and animal materials
used to make prehistoric shoes is highly perishable.
"The oldest shoes in the world are about 9,000 years old, and they're from
But
by examining the foot bones of early modern humans (Homo sapiens) and
Neaderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) dating from 10,000 to 100,000 years
ago, Professer Trinkaus says he has determined the period in which
footwear became the norm.
Anatomical evidence
He
found Neanderthals and early moderns living in Middle Paleolithic times
(100,000 to 40,000 years ago) had thicker, and therefore stronger,
lesser toes than those of Upper Paleolithic people living 26,000 years
ago.
A shoe-less lifestyle promotes stronger little toes, says
Professor Trinkaus, because "when you walk barefoot, you grip the
ground with your toes as a natural reflex". Because hard-soled shoes
improve both grip and balance, regularly shod people develop weaker
little toes.
To test the theory that the more delicate toes resulted from shoe use, the
Again, he identified chunkier toes in
the population that routinely went without shoes. The research suggests
shoe-wearers developed weaker toes simply because of the reduced
stresses on them during their lifetime; it was not an evolutionary
change.
The comparison proves his hypothesis, he says: "It has
been suggested in the past that thicker toes and fingers are related to
greater blood supply in colder climates, but it just doesn't hold up."
Cultural "explosion"
The
advent of footwear occurred during a period Professor Trinkaus
describes as "a well-documented archaeological explosion" which also
produced a number of other notable human advances.
Paul
Mellars, professor of prehistory and human evolution at the University
of Cambridge, UK, agrees there were "dramatic changes" in human
behavior at this time. "From 35,000 years ago onward, you see the first
art, the first stone tools, and the first personal decorations and
jewelry."
More advanced shoe-making skills could have been a product of this overall increase in technological ingenuity.
"There
is a strong hint that people were doing more complicated things with
...skins, with special stone tools for cleaning and awls for piercing.
"In view of all these changes, it wouldn't be at all surprising if we saw better shoes," Professor Mellars explained.
