World's oldest human footprint identified in South Africa (earthsky.org)

Posted by
EarthSky Voices
May 25, 2023

Charles Helm, Nelson Mandela University and Andrew Carr, University of Leicester
Growing discoveries of ancient footprints

Just over two decades ago, as the new millennium began, it seemed that tracks left by our ancient human ancestors dating back more than about 50,000 years were excessively rare. We knew of only four sites in the whole of Africa at that time. Two were from East Africa: Laetoli in Tanzania and Koobi Fora in Kenya. Two were from South Africa (Nahoon and Langebaan). In fact, the Nahoon site, reported in 1966, was the first hominin tracksite ever described.

In 2023 the situation is very different. It appears that people were not looking hard enough or were not looking in the right places. Today the African tally for dated hominin ichnosites (a term that includes both tracks and other traces) older than 50,000 years stands at 14. We can conveniently divide these into an East African cluster (five sites) and a South African cluster from the Cape coast (nine sites). There are a further 10 sites elsewhere in the world including the UK and the Arabian Peninsula.

We’ve found relatively few skeletal hominin remains on the Cape coast. The traces left by our human ancestors as they moved about ancient landscapes are a useful way to complement and enhance our understanding of ancient hominins in Africa.

World’s oldest human footprint

In an April 25, 2023, article published in Ichnos, the international journal of trace fossils, we provided the ages of seven newly dated hominin ichnosites. We have identified them in the past five years on South Africa’s Cape south coast. These sites now form part of the “South African cluster” of nine sites.

We found that the sites ranged in age. The most recent dates back about 71,000 years. The oldest, which dates back 153,000 years, is one of the more remarkable finds recorded in this study. It is the oldest footprint thus far attributed to our species, Homo sapiens.



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more: https://earthsky.org/human-world/worlds-oldest-human-footprint-homo-sapiens-south-africa/