Читать книгу The Art of the Shoe - Marie-Josèphe Bossan - Страница 4

Prehistoric man evidently was unfamiliar with shoes: the Stone Age markings that are known to us all indicate bare feet. But the cave paintings discovered in Spain dating from the Upper Paleolithic period (around 14,000 BC) show Magdalenian man dressed in fur boots. According to the French paleontologist and prehistorian Father Breuil (1877–1961), Neolithic man covered his feet with animal skins as protection in a harsh environment. It seems that man has always instinctively covered his feet to get about, although there remains no concrete evidence of the shoes themselves. Prehistoric shoes would have been rough in design and certainly utilitarian in function. The well-preserved boots worn by Ötzi the Iceman discovered in an Alpine glacier are an excellent example. Their deerskin uppers and bearskin soles enabled him to travel long distances to trade. These materials were chosen primarily for their ability to shield the feet from severe conditions. It was only in Antiquity that the shoe would acquire an aesthetic and decorative dimension, becoming a true indicator of social status.