Posted on 05/17/2020 1:50:24 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
People walked across a muddy layer of volcanic debris that dates to between around 19,100 and 5,760 years ago, the researchers report May 14 in Scientific Reports. Dating of a thin rock layer that partly overlaps footprint sediment narrows the age range for the footprints to between roughly 12,000 and 10,000 years ago, the team says.
Engare Sero lies in the vicinity of two much older hominid footprint sites -- nearly 3.7-million-year-old Laetoli (SN: 12/16/16) in Tanzania and 1.5-million-year-old Ileret (SN: 4/16/12) in Kenya.
At Engare Sero, Hatala's team analyzed foot impression sizes, distances between prints and which way prints pointed. One collection of tracks was made by a group of 17 people walking southwest across the landscape, the researchers found. Comparisons with modern human footprint measurements indicate that this group consisted of 14 women, two men and one young boy.
The women may have been foraging for food, while a few males visited or accompanied them, the researchers speculate. Some present-day hunter-gatherers, including Tanzania's Hadza people, form largely female food-gathering groups.
In another set of six tracks, the footprints point northeast. Those tracks probably weren't made by people traveling in a group. Instead, the impressions suggest that two women and a man had ambled along leisurely, a woman and a man had walked briskly, and another woman had run across the area, the researchers say.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
At a 2011 conference, scientists said that H. sapiens tracks at Tanzania's Engare Sero site were 120,000 years old. Those findings have not been published yet, suggesting to Webb a problem with dating or footprint authenticity. Nearly 1-million-year-old footprints of modern human ancestors were recently documented at a British site.
“Well who lost them in the first place?”
Well?
Who’s on first?
I kinda have a problem with the interp being put on the why behind the prints.
If it was females on the forage, wouldn’t there be the same number both ways?
And, volcanic ash soft enough to leave prints and hardening up quick enough to keep the prints.
Might what we be seeing is scouts returning with a new location to move to and a general evacuation that comes from that?
that this group consisted of 14 women, two men and one young boy.
It’d be interesting to know what that was all about? Hope they weren’t traveling far...
If the footprints show their prehistoric arses to be 6-feet apart we have a big problem here!
I read the article. The woman made the men go shopping with them..
Nothing changes.
And then they probably yelled at the men for tracking muddy volcanic ash into the cave.
As I recall, the Laetoli site had footprints indicating the person had looked over his shoulder, (while turning slightly) and not missing a step .
Why?
Early glbtqrpxyz amazons?
Why didn’t they keep following the tracks until they found the people?
Easy peasy.
For some people, not much has changed in 10,000 years.
And every step of the way, one or the other of the females was harping about how the men never stop for directions.
Fascinating! Thanks!
I read the article. The woman made the men go shopping with them..
Nothing changes.
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Could they tell from the tracks who was pushing the cart?
My pleasure.
Check the foot size of the males...
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