Nearly a million years ago, a small group of hominins walked near an estuary on the English coast 140 miles northeast of London, leaving footprints in the soft mud, which then hardened. Last summer, archaeologists working at the nearby site of Happisburgh, which dates to around the same time, discovered those footprints. They are the oldest footprints known outside of Africa—49 of them, made by at least five individuals, including some children. “One can imagine a small family group walking along the edge of the estuary looking for seaweed or shellfish,” says Nicholas Ashton of London’s Natural History Museum. Some of the footprints were lifted out of the site in a block of sediment before they could be eroded away by the tide. The sediment will be CT scanned to provide a more detailed picture of the stature and gait of the people, probably Homo antecessor, who made the prints.
England’s Oldest Footprints
Recommended Articles
Features November/December 2024
Let the Games Begin
How gladiators in ancient Anatolia lived to entertain the masses
Features November/December 2024
The Many Faces of the Kingdom of Shu
Thousands of fantastical bronzes are beginning to reveal the secrets of a legendary Chinese dynasty
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2024
Egyptian Crocodile Hunt
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2024
Monuments to Youth
-
Features May/June 2014
Searching for the Comanche Empire
In a deep gorge in New Mexico, archaeologists have discovered a unique site that tells the story of a nomadic confederacy's rise to power in the heart of North America
(Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY) -
Letter from Philadelphia May/June 2014
City Garden
The unlikely preservation of thousands of years of history in a modern urban oasis
(Courtesy URS Corporation, Photo: Kimberly Morrell) -
Artifacts May/June 2014
Roman Ritual Deposit
(Archaeological Exploration of Sardis) -
Digs & Discoveries May/June 2014
A Brief Glimpse into Early Rome
(Courtesy Dan Diffendale/Sant'Omobono Project)