1,000 year old Viking Shoe

We will keep on wondering what goes through the minds of the archaeologists or historians, when they publish non-sense like this but there it goes:
viking-boot.jpg

One of the original boots found in the Oseberg Burial Mound dating back to 834 AD.

osberg-ship-viking-shoe.jpg

Source

Essentially we have these allegedly leather shoes made approximately 1,000 years. They spent however long in the ground and required restoration. Waterlogged conditions contributed to their remarkable preservation.

Not only vikings enjoyed shoes made of leather. Below are leather boots from Staraya Ladoga, Russia. 8th and 9th centuries. Excavations by N. I. Repnikov, 1911 and V. I. Ravdonikas, 1959.

leather-old-shoes.jpg

Source


KD: Here is some info from the Leather Wiki page.
  • Leather biodegrades slowly - taking 25 to 40 years to decompose. However, vinyl and petrochemical-derived materials take 500 or more years to decompose.
  • The natural fibers of leather break down with the passage of time.
So, what do you think? Can buried in the dirt leather survive for 1,000 years?
 
Back
Top