Finns Invented Skates?

A recent study co-authored by human bio-mechanics specialist Federico Formenti at the University of Oxford, provides evidence that Finns were the first people to use skates - 5000 years ago! - and they made them out of BONES? Anyone who has lived in the boonies of Finland through a winter can understand why Finns might well lay claim to what is today a wildly popular snow sport in many parts of the world. Five thousand years ago, however, it was not for 'fun' that resourceful Finns invented 'bone skates'. It was, according to Fomenti, to save travel time!

Finland is a land of lakes. Lakes freeze over. Snow is deep. Ice is sleek. Get stuck in snow walking, or glide swiftly over the ice? Glide - good idea! How to do that? Brainstorm! Bones! And from a pile of bones (horse? reindeer?), and dried leather (straps), the first skates were fashioned.

For more on the evolution of the "skate", click here.
Photo credit: Federico Formenti

Video Gem: Ever tried cross-country skating? Now this does look like fun!

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