MessageToEagle.com – Archeologists have discovered some of the human footprints on the beach at Happisburgh on the Norfolk, East of England.
The prints, thought to be more than 800,000 years old, were found in silt on the beach at Happisburgh on the north-east coast of the county.
Scientists believe the prints, which were probably made by five different people, are direct evidence of the earliest known humans in northern Europe.
Dr Nick Ashton from the British Museum said it was “an extraordinarily rare discovery”.
The prints were found at low tide when heavy waves washed away much of the beach sand to briefly expose the silt and scientists rushed to take photographs of them before they were eroded by the sea.
“At first we weren’t sure what we were seeing but as we removed any remaining beach sand and sponged off the seawater, it was clear that the hollows resembled prints, perhaps human footprints, and that we needed to record the surface as quickly as possible before the sea eroded it away,” Ashton said.
The scientists also made 3D models of the surface which show distinct heel, arch and toe marks left by a group of adults and children – with some equating to modern shoe sizes of up to UK size eight.
Archaeologist Simon Parfitt said the mix of sizes indicate a family group, rather than a hunting group, who appear to be on some sort of trail and probably heading south.
Researchers were also able to use the feet measurements to estimate the height of the people involved which rage from around 3ft to 5ft 7ins.
At the time the footprints were made, the area around Happisburgh was several miles from the coast and Britain was still linked by land to continental Europe.
It would have been home to animals including deer and bison and provided plants, seaweed and shellfish for food.
“The latest 3D models show these prints in incredible detail and by measuring the footprints, by looking at the length and width, we can actually reconstruct the height and body weight of the individuals and from that we can show a male and also some smaller individuals, which probably included females and some youngsters. They are clearly a family group rather than a hunting party,” Dr Ashton said:
“We can’t be certain about the human species that left these marks, but we know from the age of the site that in southern Europe there is a species called homo antecessor and it’s possible that these footprints are actually the tracks left by that early human species.”
The site at Happisburgh has been investigated for the last 10 years and previous finds include evidence of an extinct type of mammoth, horse and early forms of vole.
“The humans who made the Happisburgh footprints may well have been related to the people of similar antiquity from Atapuerca in Spain, assigned to the species Homo antecessor (“Pioneer Man”). These people were of a similar height to ourselves and were fully bipedal,” Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum said.
Only three other sets of footprints, discovered in Africa, are more ancient.
Coastal erosion at Happisburgh has exposed a treasure trove of fossils in recent years.
Between 2005 and 2010, archaeologists discovered about 80 flint tools used by a race of ancient Britons who lived in Norfolk almost a million years ago.
Evidence suggested they were hunting mammoth and deer and hiding from sabre-toothed cats in the area more than 800,000 years ago, making them the oldest known human settlers in northern Europe.
The find pushed back the date when humans were first known to have occupied Britain by at least 100,000 years.”
Paper
Ashton N, Lewis SG, De Groote I, Duffy SM, Bates M, et al. (2014) Hominin Footprints from Early Pleistocene Deposits at Happisburgh, UK. PLoS ONE 9(2): e88329. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0088329
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