700-year-old sandal discovered in nest of bone

They’re culture vultures.

A 700-year-old sandal and several other hand-crafted cultural artifacts were found in the breeding nest of a bone-eating vulture in Spain, according to a newly published paper.

The medieval footwear was discovered by a team of researchers studying the nests of bearded vultures on the cliffs of the southern parts of Spain between 2008 and 2014, according to research published in September in The Scientific Naturalist. 3

One of the 12 nests surveyed dates back to at least the 13th century and contained several handcrafted objects of similarly shocking vintage.

Most remarkably, they found a “complete sandal made of esparto grass cord” which dates back roughly 700 years. 3

In that same nest, researchers detected a fragment of “ochre-painted sheep leat