MessageToEagle.com -
Every now and then archaeologists stumble upon artifacts that are in the wrong place at the wrong time, or at least so it seems to us.
When it happens, an archaeological discovery can easily become an ancient detective story.
In order to learn what took place, scientists need to use historical data to travel back in time, and search for clues. It is not always an easy task,
as there is still so much we do not know about our ancient past.
Archaeologists are currently scratching their heads trying to solve the mystery of some ancient, shoes that were deliberately hidden in an Egyptian temple.
The two pairs of children's shoes were among the seven found concealed in a jar placed into a cavity between two mudbrick walls in a temple in Luxor, site of the
ancient city of Thebes. Oddly, the shoes were tied together using palm fibre string and placed within a single adult shoe. A third pair that had been worn by an
adult was found alongside them.
The shoes were originally discovered by an Italian archaeological team in 2004, but new research offer more clues and scientists hope they can solve the mystery
soon.
Strange foreign shoes were discovered in an ancient Egyptian temple.
The shoes are extraordinary in many ways. They are 'relatively expensive' and have design features that suggest they were produced in Medieval Europe.
So, why were the shoes never retrieved after they were left in the temple just over 2,000 years ago when Egypt was ruled by a dynasty of Greek descent?
They shoes are obviously of foreign origin, as they were concealed at the time when most Egyptians would normally have worn sandals.
'The find is extraordinary as the shoes were in pristine condition and still supple upon discovery,' wrote Dr Veldmeijer assistant
director of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo and an expert in ancient Egyptian footwear in the most recent issue of the Journal of the American
Research Center in Egypt.
Dr Veldmeijer explained that the shoes were eye-striking at the time.
If you wore such shoes "everybody would look at you", Dr. Veldmeijer said.
Unfortunately, he added, after they were unearthed the shoes became brittle and 'extremely fragile'.
Dr. Veldmeijer's examined the shoes with help of photographs and he concluded that most surprising was that the single shoe discovered with the child's pairs
inside was
made with a feature that shoemakers know as a 'rand'. It is a structural device that was thought to have been first used in Medieval Europe.
Who left the shoes in the temple?
Folded leather strips that go between the soles and the upper parts of shoes, rands reinforce the stitching as 'the upper is very prone to tear apart at the
stitch holes', Dr Veldmeijer explained. The shoes would be practical to wear in muddy conditions. Therefore, to find the device in the dry climate of Egypt is
surprising and indicates that the shoes were made somewhere abroad.
According to Dr. Veldmeijer "the shoe was exposed to unequal pressure, which showed that person who wore it 'walked with a limp, otherwise the wear would have
been far more equal'.
The shoes date back more than 2,000 years and this picture shows the inside of the jar before the shoes were removed.
The wear and tear and subsequent repair showed that the people who wore them valued the shoes as 'highly prized commodities'".
Dr. Veldmeijer cannot explain why someone would leave the shoes in the temple without having the intention of getting them back.
One can only speculate what might have happened. Was the shoe owner forced to quickly leave the temple? Was he or she scared to go back and retrieve the shoes?
There are number of possibilities.
For the time being, this ancient case remains an unsolved mystery.
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MessageToEagle.com -
Every now and then archaeologists stumble upon artifacts that are in the wrong place at the wrong time, or at least so it seems to us.
Once, it was the site of many temples, especially the temple of Seti I and first of all, this very ancient city is
strongly associated with the "Lord of Abydos" - Osiris, god of the dead and its cult.
Today, it's considered one of the most important archaeological sites of Ancient Egypt...
A collection of fifth dynasty ancient Egyptian statues were discovered hidden in a tunnel in Abusir South,
30km north of Giza plateau and not far from the mysterious Solar Temple.
The area now known as Abusir South, is located to the north-west of Saqqara
Archaeologists have uncovered 35 small pyramids with graves, dating back around 2,000 years when a kingdom known as Kush ruled over Sudan.
In ancient times, the Kingdom of Kush, also called Nubia - the Land of Gold was located on the Nile River, to the south of ancient Egypt.
Changes to just three genetic letters among billions led to evolution and development of the
mammalian motor sensory network, and laid the groundwork for the defining characteristics of the human brain, Yale University researchers report.
