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deeply underground in a rock - salt mine in Austria , archaeologist have made an " outstanding " discovery : the 2,200 - year - old shoe of a child .

The mine ’s tilt saltiness , which people have been mine since the Iron Age ( 800 B.C. to 1 B.C. ) in the village of Dürrnberg near present - day Salzburg , preserved the well - crafted shoe , consort to atranslated statementfrom the German Mining Museum ( DBM ) in Bochum . The lonely footwear is about a U.S. nestling ’s sizing 12 ( European children ’s size 30 ) .

A photo of the leather shoe, which has a white paper towel inside it

The leather shoe had a piece of flax or linen that hinted at how the shoe had been tied.

" The condition of the shoe found is outstanding,“Thomas Stöllner , the museum ’s research section head , said in the statement . " constitutional material in the main decay over time . discover like this baby ’s shoe … offer an highly rarified insight into the life of Iron Age miners . "

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archeologist noticed that the leather horseshoe has a preserve remainder of lacing made from flax or linen paper , which hints at how the shoe was laced . The shoe ’s design indicates that the footwear was crafted in the second century B.C. , allot to the statement .

A set of iron ankle shackles in which the rings are slightly open and they are connected by two straight links at a right angle

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a closeup of an amulet with a scarab on it

While only one horseshoe was found , its discovery suggests that shaver were underground in the mine more than two millennia ago .

The museum has been carrying out archeological work in the mine since 2001 . Near the shoe , archaeologists found the fragment of a wooden shovel and the remainder of a fur with lacing , which may have belonged to a fur hood .

At the German Mining Museum , the public can go on go to learn about hard ember , mining and mineral resource aboveground , as well as on a 0.7 - mile - farsighted ( 1.2 kilometers ) underground itinerary .

Against the background of a greenish and red rock are two images: one of a human skeleton emerging from the dirt and one of archaeologists in hard hats excavating it

A selection of metal objects

A vessel decorated with two human-like faces (one is shown above).

A whitish stone tool is stuck into a piece of brown wood with greyish tar. There is a hole drilled into the wood.

Remains of the Heroon, a small temple built for the burial cluster of Philip II at the Museum of the Royal Tombs inside the Great Tumulus of Aigai (Aegae)

The coin hoard, amounting to over $340,000, was possibly hidden by people fleeing political persecution.

a close-up of a handmade stone tool

a wrecked car underwater

Green carved scarab beetle in a gold setting and a gold chain

A series of stacked human skulls lie face-down in the mud at the bottom of a cave

an illustration of Mars

three prepackaged sandwiches

Tunnel view of Yosemite National Park.

A scuba diver descends down a deep ocean reef wall into the abyss.

An artist�s illustration of a satellite crashing back to Earth.