Egypt discovers what may be oldest human footprint

Yahoo ^ | Mon Aug 20 | Yahoo news

[fanfan]

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian archaeologists have found what they said could be the oldest human footprint in history in the country's western desert, the Arab country's antiquities' chief said on Monday.

"This could go back about two million years," said Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. "It could be the most important discovery in Egypt," he told Reuters.

Archaeologists found the footprint, imprinted on mud and then hardened into rock, while exploring a prehistoric site in Siwa, a desert oasis.

Scientists are using carbon tests on plants found in the rock to determine its exact age, Hawass said.

Khaled Saad, the director of prehistory at the council, said that based on the age of the rock where the footprint was found, it could date back even further than the renowned 3-million year-old fossil Lucy, the partial skeleton of an ape-man, found in Ethiopia in 1974.

Most archaeological interest in Egypt is focused on the time of the pharaohs.

Previously, the earliest human archaeological evidence from Egypt dated back around 200,000 years, Saad said.

[fanfan]

Foot prints?

[edcoil]

If male, refused to ask for directions, if female, complaining about dirty cave.

Didn’t the finger painting in the French ice caves dating back some 20 million years not have footprints?

[vetsvette]

“Foot prints?”

Yep, and there’s a PF Flyer logo there too.

[Wiseghy]

2 million years would not have been anything “human”.

Even Australopithecus was just a standing ape.

[G8 Diplomat]

First they say...

"This could go back about two million years," said Zahi Hawass

Then they say...

...it could date back even further than the renowned 3-million year-old fossil Lucy

They contradict themselves. Have they been taking lessons from Kerry?

[GreenHornet]

2 million years would not have been anything “human”.

So then, we can't rule out Helen Thomas at this point.

[fanfan]

Most of the caves with paintings don’t have foot prints.

Just imagine how bizarre we might look to future archaeologists, 500 or 1000 years from now.

:-)

(Oh no! I didn’t turn this into a creation/evolution thread, did I?)

[Diplomat]

And you find this to be a larger error than the reporter’s suggestion that scientists will carbon date this find?

[G8 Diplomat]

Didn’t the finger painting in the French ice caves dating back some 20 million years not have footprints?

Humans haven't been on the planet for 20 million years. Even Australopithicus only goes back about 5 million.

[ASA Vet]

Pingski

[ASA Vet]

Nope, so far it’s still a semi-science tread.

[BOBTHENAILER]

The really scary thing not mentioned is they found the 2nd oldest footprint in Israel.

The first was a left foot, the secong a right foot

And they were both REALLY BIG

[camerakid400]

60,000 years is the maximum for carbon dating so it is probably a mistake in the article

[RightWhale]

Scientists are using carbon tests on plants found in the rock to determine its exact age, Hawass said.

Hawass knows better. This gives geology a bad name.

[RetSignman]

[oldest human footprint in history]

Algore was immediately notified and asked “Was it carbon”?

[RightWhale]

Hawass did the count for the Million Man March years ago before he got his present position of authority in Egyptology.

[JimSEA]

I think they were talking about organic material in the mud, but I don’t think radiocarbon dating goes much further back than 60,000 or 70,000 years. Wikipedia seems to support those dates. Coyoteman is the expert however. Two million years????

[Political Junkie Too]

If it's a size 12 Bruno Magli, we might be onto something.

-PJ

[RightWhale]

painting in the French ice caves

They are ordinary rock caves and the paintings might be 30,000 years old give or take.

[blam]

Stranger In A New Land (Archaeology)

[knarf]

and if it's determined to be the print of someone born feb. 29th ... it's only 5 million years old.

:D

[blam]

[RaceBannon]

more proof evolutionary time periods are false and imaginary

[353FMG]

I think I’ve seen this guy before on CNN. Or was it perhaps MSNBC?

[ASA Vet]

Until now.

[Ditter]

If it was a male you KNOW he tracked that mud into the cave.

[Coyoteman]

Scientists are using carbon tests on plants found in the rock to determine its exact age, Hawass said.

Hawass knows better. This gives geology a bad name.

Or journalists. I would prefer to think that the journalist was completely confused about the different radiometric dating methods.

[Coyoteman]

I think they were talking about organic material in the mud, but I don’t think radiocarbon dating goes much further back than 60,000 or 70,000 years. Wikipedia seems to support those dates. Coyoteman is the expert however. Two million years????

The normal upper limit for most labs and most equipment is in the 50,000 year range, with some experimental AMS work extending toward the 80,000 year range.

I am not sure what radiometric test they would use on old mud; most of the test used in fossil studies in Africa I believe are applied to volcanic layers above and below the fossil-bearing layers.

[G8 Diplomat]

Touché. You got me there. Dumb post on my part.