Sole survivor

The shoe, discovered in an Armenian cave, once graced a foot that walked before the construction of the Great Pyramid and Stonehenge.

Made from a single piece of cow-hide leather laced down the centre and tailored to fit the wearer's right foot, the shoe is a European size 37.

Scientists do not know if it belonged to a man or a woman. Although a modern woman's size, it would have suited a man from the Chalcolithic period, the era in which it was made.

The shoe is described as being in "perfect condition", preserved for millennia in the cool and dry conditions of the cave while stuffed with grass.

Around the shoe were a number of objects, including large clay pots holding the preserved remains of wheat, barley and apricots.

The shoe looks strikingly similar to "pampooties" worn on the Aran Islands in the west of Ireland up to the 1950s.