Emily Chan
During the nineteenth century, a hidden cavern containing over twenty pairs of ancient sandals and various wooden tools, such as baskets and a mace, was discovered.
The site where the archaeological remains were uncovered is called Cueva de los Murciélagos, which translates to the Cave of Bats and is located on the coast of Spain.
In the early 1830s, a local landowner came across the cave and made good use of all the bat droppings to fertilize his land. About ten years later, miners searching for lead descended upon the cave. That was when the ancient artifacts were found.
Almost two centuries later, scientists have used modern radiocarbon dating techniques to determine how old the artifacts are and who might have made them. The sandals, baskets, and wooden tools were found to be between 9,500 and 6,200 years old and constructed during the Mesolithic period, or the Middle Stone Age.
Previously, the objects were thought to date back to the Neolithic period, or the New Stone Age, which was centuries after the Middle Stone Age.
The Neolithic period was a time when humans practiced a more settled lifestyle. Instead of relying on hunting and gathering for food, they began to grow crops and domesticate animals.
Furthermore, the sandals and baskets were woven out of a type of grass, providing the first direct evidence of preserved basketry in Europe made by people who were hunters and gatherers.
According to the leader of the study, Francisco Martínez-Sevilla, who is from the University of Alcalá, the new dating of the baskets “opens a window of opportunity” to learn more about hunter-gatherer societies.
It is also bizarre how the woven sandals and baskets were found so well-preserved. For millennia, people have been using organic plant-based materials to make clothing and tools, but it is rare that they survive the passage of thousands of years. So, how did these artifacts stay intact for all this time?
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