Archaeologists at an former mining site in Dürrnberg , near Salzburg , Austria , have recover a perfectly preserved fry ’s skid that is thought to be over 2,000 yr old . The specimen is so well preserved that remnants of the fine cloth used to enlace it have also survived .
Since 2001 , investigator with the German Mining Museum Bochum , Leibniz Research Museum for Georesources , have been investigating an ancient mine in Dürrnberg ( otherwise known as Bad Dürrnberg ) . This land site is known for comprise rock-and-roll table salt ( halite ) , and was mined as betimes as the Iron Age ( between 1200 and 600 BCE ) .
The grounds why the tiddler ’s shoe is so well preserved is because of the salt at the site . table salt helps foreclose organic materials from decomposing as they would in other position .
According to the investigator , the horseshoe would be equivalent to an EU sizing 30 ( 13 US or child ’s 11.5 UK ) today .
“ Our research activity at Dürrnberg have been providing us with valuable discovery for ten for scientifically research the earliest minelaying activity . The experimental condition of the shoe found is outstanding , ” Professor Dr Thomas Stöllner , of the German Mining Museum Bochum ( Deutsches Bergbau - Museum Bochum ) , say in a translatedstatement .
This is not the only shoe recovered from the site , but it is pregnant because it proves children were present late in the mine .
In addition , part of the material used to lace the shoe has also survived the centuries . This is passing rare , specially as the lacing seems to be made of flax or linen . This allow for research worker to pass determination about how this former footgear was tie up . Judging by its overall aim , Stöllner and his colleagues believe the horseshoe was made in the second hundred BCE .
excavation have also recovered other organic cadaver in locations near to where the shoe was found . These include fragments of a wooden shovelful , as well as the remains of what is think to have been a fur hood with lace .
“ constitutional materials in the main decompose over clip ” , Stöllner add . “ Finds like this child ’s shoe , but also textile remains or excrement like those incur on Dürrnberg , offer an extremely uncommon insight into the living of Iron Age miners . They put up valuable information for our scientific work . ”
The excavation of the excavation site is set to continue for several more year . In that time , the team hope to search the whole area and to rebuild a comprehensive image of what sprightliness was like in an Iron Age mine . The discovery here are serve to address break in the historical record book that can not be fill through other source .
