据Unexplained Mysteries的消息，英国一研究机构经研究发现在4000多年的芬兰，人们既已开始穿上冰鞋进行湖上滑冰。
“当时人们的冰鞋很可能都是用马骨做成的”。 该项目研究者牛津大学的Federico Formenti博士和他的团队通过对大英博物馆的骨制冰鞋复制品的多次测验得出了这个结论。他说这种冰鞋用起来很有意思，丝毫不次于现代冰鞋。
“通过我们研究发现，这种滑冰鞋在遍布湖泊的芬兰南部地区很可能尤其盛行。”当时的人们发现，穿这种鞋使他们各城镇间的旅程变得更轻松，同时还可以湖上穿行。
Federico Formenti博士认为早期的溜冰者是将脚系在两块马骨上然后推动滑行。同现代冰鞋上的冰刀比起来，由于残留着油脂，马骨的摩擦力更小些。
该团队通过多次试验，测定这种骨质冰鞋的速度达每小时8公里，而当代速滑冰鞋为每小时60千米。
原文：skating on bones
Finland - The world's first skaters are likely to have taken to the ice about 4，000 years ago on the frozen lakes of Finland， according to a UK-based research team. They seem to have used skates made out of horse bones， Dr Federico Formenti of Oxford University， said. His team tested replicas of bone-skates from the British Museum over several years. He said the skates were fun to use and compared well with modern equivalents. "From our study it seems that [the skating] happened particularly in the southern area of Finland where there are many small lakes，" Dr Formenti said. People found it much easier to travel between towns by skating or walking across the ice.These early skaters would， he believes， stand on two horse bones and propel themselves with a stick. The bones have very low friction compared to modern metal blades because of the residual fat on the bones. The research team attained an average speed of about 8km/h (5mph) compared to modern speed-skaters whizzing by at speeds of up to 60km/h (37).