What is the oldest piece of clothing in your closet? Maybe your grandfather’s hat, or an old school jacket. But imagine! Someone has a pair of shoes from 675 years ago, and they are still completely intact.
It’s surprising, but true. An incredible find was recently found in a vulture nest in Spain: 675-year-old shoes, which are still intact.
Scientists have discovered a pair of sandals made of grass rope that have survived in an amazingly intact state, looking as if they were carefully preserved in a time capsule.
Antoni Margalida, an ecologist at the Spanish National Research Council, says that what they discovered in the nest of the bearded vulture in the mountains of southern Spain is nothing less than a time capsule.
Margalida and his colleagues have been studying the nests of this endangered species of vulture for more than a decade, and in a study recently published in the journal Ecology, they reported an astonishing discovery.
These vultures have an extraordinary habit of collecting and preserving man-made objects. It seems that they have created an ‘archive’ or museum within nature.
“We recovered an old sandal, an ancient spear and pieces of colored leather. We had no idea that these objects could be in such good condition,” Margalida said.
Scientists say that vultures build their nests in mountain caves and have used them for generations. These high caves are perfect for keeping young vultures safe. The constant temperature and humidity of the caves also help preserve objects such as shoes and clothing. These objects were probably used to build nests.
“It’s like a natural museum,” Margalida said. “When we dated some of the objects, we saw that they were from the 13th century. It was really amazing.”
But most of what they found at home were bone fragments.
This species of vulture was hunted to extinction in most of Europe, with the Spanish government even paying people to hunt them until the 1950s.
