By Andrew Russell, Global News, August 19, 2016
300-year-old shoe found at the University of Cambridge
A maintenance crew at St. John’s College at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England, made a “sole” discovery when they uncovered a shoe inside a wall believed to be about 300 years old.
The well-worn, but well-preserved left shoe — roughly a modern-day men’s size 6 — is what historians called a classic example of “apotropaic” magic, popular magic designed to bring luck and turn away evil.