footprints - out of time, not in Iraq!

[deep]

Sorry, not Iraq related.

Oldest human footprints found on volcano
19:00 12 March 03
Hazel Muir

The trails of footprints (A and B) have as many as 27 steps (Image: Paolo Mietto and Marco Avanzini)

Three primitive humans who scrambled down a volcano's slopes more than 325,000 years ago left their footprints fossilised in volcanic ash. If the ages of the trails are confirmed, they could be the earliest known footprints of our Homo ancestors.
Paolo Mietto of Padua University and his colleagues examined three tracks of footprints on the Roccamonfina volcano in southern Italy, known to locals as "devils' trails". "Because they occur in volcanic rock, they have always been considered supernatural," says Mietto.
The scientists say the footprints are fossilised in ash deposited by an eruption that has already been dated as 385,000 to 325,000 years old by radiometric techniques.
One person left a track of 27 footprints in a zig-zag pattern, which probably made descent of the steep slope easier. Another track of 19 prints shows a gentle curve, but there are occasional palm-prints where the walker put a hand on the ground probably to avoid slipping.
A third track of 10 evenly spaced prints forms a straight line. There are also two animal tracks, possibly made by big dogs or wolves.

Short order
The human footprints are about 20 centimetres long and 10 cm wide. Using the average foot length to height ratio of 15 per cent, this suggests the people who made the tracks were only about 135 cm tall (4' 5").

If the ages of the tracks are confirmed, the footprints could have been made by Homo heidelbergensis, thought to have evolved more than 600,000 years ago and migrated to Europe from Africa. "In my view, the [footprint makers] would have been the ancestors of Neanderthals," says Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London.
Many anthropologists believe H. heidelbergensis evolved into Neanderthals in Europe, but into modern humans, H. sapiens, in Africa. However, there is no consensus about the migration patterns of our primitive ancestors.

In the steps of Lucy

The footprints are just 20 centimetres long (Image: Paolo Mietto and Marco Avanzini)

The Italian fossils are much younger than the oldest known hominid footprints - those near Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania are more than 3.7 million years old. They were probably made by two individuals of the distant ancestral species Australopithecus afarensis, of which the famous fossil skeleton Lucy was a member.
However, the devils' trails may be the earliest known footprints of a Homo species, which some consider to be the first true humans.
Leslie Aiello, an anthropologist at University College London, thinks the people who left the footprints seem surprisingly small for H. heidelbergensis adults.
Boxgrove man, another H. heidelbergenesis individual whose tibia was found in England in 1993, seems to have been more than 180 cm tall (six feet). The Italian footprints could have been made by children, suggests Aiello.
Journal reference: Nature (vol 422, p 133)

 

[verte76]

Very interesting. Thanks!

 

[elfyx]

I really think our pre-history is so much more interesting than we commonly believe. Genetic markers can trace us all back to Africa, and likewise around I believe 20-25 thousand years ago, there was a sideways infusion of about 223 genes, thought to have come from of all place bacteria. That is the best answer geneticists can come up with, but it doesn't sit right with a lot of people. Nor should it, but the genetic markers are there, and they need to be explained.

I also think the history of our dawn of civilisation is more interesting than we think. We'd know a lot more about our history if more than 1,000,000 volumes of historical texts weren't destroyed throughout history in great libraries around the world. That is what ignorance like intolerance and shit like imperialism and the crusades will do, though. What is so absolutely fascinating is all the signs of early civilisation that ended around 10,500 b.c. There are nearly intact underwater cities off the coast of Japan, for example; great stone staircases and temples, city streets... The last time that land was above sea level was 10,500 b.c. when the last ice age ended and the sea level was 150-200 meters lower than what it is today. Nearly every ancient culture and religious texts record the "great flood" and all the evidence (geological and otherwise) continues to build the case for this being 10,500 b.c. Also interesting is all the evidence that is blowing a hole in classic egyptology regarding the history of the Sphynx. The Sphyx was built out of the rock, not on top of it. Erosion and other features in the stone unmistakably detail massive water erosion. The last time in history that there was enough water to cause such erosion geologically in that part of Egypt was, you guessed it, around 10,500 b.c.

Just my ramblings... carry on.

 

[mboverload]

Hello, this is my first post.

Anyway, damn it sucks that those texts are gone. I've read about when they were burning a Egyptian or Roman libary, it had thousands of scolls of information on everything they knew at that time. Ugghhh it's too bad. At least when we invade Iraq we wont have to worry about destroying anything, cause I can't think of anything important there...

 

[Angela Harlem]

Don't know if the people of Iraq would feel that way...but that is off topic.
Welcome to the forum btw, mboverload.

 

[elfyx]

Hello, this is my first post.

Anyway, damn it sucks that those texts are gone. I've read about when they were burning a Egyptian or Roman libary, it had thousands of scolls of information on everything they knew at that time. Ugghhh it's too bad. At least when we invade Iraq we wont have to worry about destroying anything, cause I can't think of anything important there...

This is untrue. Iraq is the site of no less than (what we know of) modern civilisation itself: sumer/babylonia. Saddam has been actively, even fervently in the last decade restoring and commisioning ancient archeological projects, from restoration of babylonian palaces and temples, to the unearthing and translation of thousands of clay tablets and other artifacts. Saddam sees himself as a sort-of modern day Nebuchadnezzar. Bricks that lay on top of a restored palace belonging to Neb. and which on each brick is inscribed his name, now lay bricks inscribed with Saddam's name. Archeological sites in Iraq are so important to him, he classifies them under national security, and its impossible to get near them without armed escort. The wealth of information contained and buried in the sands of Iraq are literally immense. And the importance of all this archeological data is extraordinary. Many see sumer/babylonia as the link or key to modern civilisation and what came before it (our lost pre-history?). What is highly concerning to so many archeologists right now concerning Iraq, is the U.S. admission of using bunker-bombs. These bombs if dropped on a buried site, will forever destroy the priceless history that's buried there.

Oh yeah, and welcome to the forum!