maximus otter
Recovering policeman
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2001
- Messages
- 14,009
Over the past 15 years we have identified more than 350 vertebrate tracksites along the Cape coast. These include a number of tracks made by humans who were clearly walking or jogging barefoot, as evidenced by toe impressions.
But we also noticed similar trackways, seemingly well preserved, that contained no toe impressions. Realising, too, that very little research has been done about when humans first fashioned footwear, we decided to investigate further.
Possible shod hominin tracks in the Garden Route National Park, South Africa. (Charles Helm)
We followed up with a little crafting of our own to create the types of footwear that might have been worn. Most of the tracksites we have found are between about 70,000 years and 150,000 years in age, so that is the time period we focused on.
Our findings suggest that there are at least three tracksites on the Cape south coast that might have been made by shod humans (a fourth site unfortunately rapidly deteriorated in quality and slumped into the sea).
The global record of sites attributed to shod trackmakers is sparse. Until now, only four sites older than 30,000 years have been postulated, all from western Europe, including a Neanderthal site.
Though the evidence is not conclusive, we are excited about our discoveries.
https://www.sciencealert.com/ancient-tracks-reveal-oldest-evidence-of-footwear-ever-found
maximus otter
But we also noticed similar trackways, seemingly well preserved, that contained no toe impressions. Realising, too, that very little research has been done about when humans first fashioned footwear, we decided to investigate further.
Possible shod hominin tracks in the Garden Route National Park, South Africa. (Charles Helm)
We followed up with a little crafting of our own to create the types of footwear that might have been worn. Most of the tracksites we have found are between about 70,000 years and 150,000 years in age, so that is the time period we focused on.
Our findings suggest that there are at least three tracksites on the Cape south coast that might have been made by shod humans (a fourth site unfortunately rapidly deteriorated in quality and slumped into the sea).
The global record of sites attributed to shod trackmakers is sparse. Until now, only four sites older than 30,000 years have been postulated, all from western Europe, including a Neanderthal site.
Though the evidence is not conclusive, we are excited about our discoveries.
https://www.sciencealert.com/ancient-tracks-reveal-oldest-evidence-of-footwear-ever-found
maximus otter