Study Suggests Hominins Wore Shoes

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA—According to a statement released by Wits University, Bernhard Zipfel of Wits University and his colleagues made flip-flops from natural materials, similar to those worn by hunter-gatherer San people today. The researchers then wore the sandals while walking along beaches on South Africa’s Cape Coast. When they compared computerized images of their resulting footprints with photographs of human trackways dated to between 70,000 and 150,000 years ago, the researchers detected “amazing correlations,” Zipfel said. Hominins would have worn shoes to protect their feet from the very sharp rocks along the Southern Cape Coast at the time, he explained. “It makes sense that people would use footwear to protect themselves. One hundred thousand years ago, an injury to the foot could have been fatal,” he concluded. To read about two-million-year-old hominin remains unearthed in South Africa, go to "Consider the Craniums."