LONDON: Archaeologists said on Tuesday they believed they had dug up Britain’s oldest shoe, dating from the early Iron Age about 2,000 years ago. The leather shoe, about 30 cm long — the modern equivalent of a British size 10 (US size 10.5, European size 44) which suggests its owner was a man — was discovered in a hollowed-out tree trunk in a quarry in southwest England.

It was so well preserved it still had visible holes for lacing and stitching, said Richard Woodgate, project archaeologist for Exeter Archaeology which made the find.

“It’s believed to be the oldest shoe in Britain and has national and European significance because it is so rare for preserved leather to be identifiable as a thing,” he told Reuters.

The shoe is thought to be in a good condition because it was preserved by waterlogging, Woodgate said. The tree trunk it was found in was a timber-built well dating from between 700 BC to 43 AD.

Exeter Archaeology came across the well after uncovering a nearby Bronze Age “industrial site” dating from between 1460 to 1290 BC, which is also said to be a find of national importance. Specialists will now analyse the shoe to shed more light on how it was made and try to identify the animal from which the leather came. It will then go on display at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, close to where it was found.—Reuters