I once heard that backpacks are a remarkably recent invention (like post-1700). Is that true? What is the earliest known example of a backpack? By backpack I mean a large pack carried by straps over each shoulder.
There is evidence to suggest that the "Ötzi", the name given to the ice-preserved man found in the Ötztal Alps in 1991, had a backpack - and indeed, quite a sophisticated one, with a frame.
See more detail on it here: http://www.iceman.it/en/node/283
Ötzi lived around 3,300 BCE, so he's probably a good contender for the earliest such device.
Backpacks (strictly, wicker baskets with shoulder straps) can also be seen in a number of medieval images - most notably one from the Maciejowski Bible, which dates from around 1250.