Happisburgh footprints
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The Happisburgh footprints were a set of fossilized
hominid The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the east ...
footprint Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. The ...
s that date to the early
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
, over 800,000 years ago. They were discovered in May 2013 in a newly uncovered sediment layer of the
Cromer Forest Bed The Cromer Forest Bed is a geological formation in Norfolk, England. It consists of river gravels, estuary and floodplain sediments predominantly clays and muds as well as sands along the coast of northern Norfolk. It is the type locality for the ...
on a beach at
Happisburgh Happisburgh () is a village civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is on the coast, to the east of a north–south road, the B1159 from Bacton on the coast to Stalham. It is a nucleated village. The nearest substantial to ...
in
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
, England, and carefully photographed in 3D before being destroyed by the tide shortly afterwards. Results of research on the footprints were announced on 7 February 2014 and identified them as the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa.Ashton N, Lewis SG, De Groote I, Duffy SM, Bates M, et al. (201
"Hominin Footprints from Early Pleistocene Deposits at Happisburgh, UK"
''PLoS ONE'' 9(2): e88329.
Before the Happisburgh discovery, the oldest known footprints in Britain were at
Uskmouth Uskmouth ( cy, Aberwysg) is an area to the south of the city of Newport, South Wales. Location Uskmouth is effectively in the west of the village of Nash. It is at Uskmouth that the River Usk meets the Severn estuary. Amenities It includ ...
in South Wales, from the
Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...
and carbon-dated to 4,600 BCE. The oldest known hominin footprints in Europe were the
Ciampate del Diavolo The Ciampate del Diavolo ( Neapolitan: "Devil's Footprints" or "Devil's Trails") is a locality near the extinct Roccamonfina volcano in northern Campania, Italy. It is named after fossilised footprints preserved in pyroclastic flow deposits tha ...
tracks found at the
Roccamonfina volcano Roccamonfina is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about northwest of Naples and about northwest of Caserta. In the communal territory is the extinct volcano of Roccamonfina. The foss ...
in Italy, dated to around 350,000 years ago. Winning the 2015 ' Rescue Dig of the Year' award, the Happisburgh footprint discovery caught the public eye and was featured in an exhibition in London's
Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
.


Discovery

The footprints were discovered in May 2013 by Nicholas Ashton, curator at the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, and Martin Bates, from Trinity St David's University in Wales, who were carrying out research as part of the Pathways to Ancient Britain (PAB) project. The footprints were found in sediment, partially covered by beach sand, at low tide on the foreshore at Happisburgh. The sediment had been laid down in the estuary of a long-vanished river and subsequently been covered by sand, preserving its surface. The layer of sediment underlies a cliff on the beach, but after stormy weather the protective layer of sand was washed away and the sediment exposed. The sediments are stratigraphically considered to belong to the
Cromer Forest Bed The Cromer Forest Bed is a geological formation in Norfolk, England. It consists of river gravels, estuary and floodplain sediments predominantly clays and muds as well as sands along the coast of northern Norfolk. It is the type locality for the ...
unit. Because of the softness of the sediment, which lay below the high tide mark, tidal action eroded it, and within two weeks the footprints had been destroyed. Although the researchers were unable to preserve the footprints, they worked during periods of low tide, often in pouring rain, to record 3D images of all the footprints by using
photogrammetry Photogrammetry is the science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant ima ...
. The images were analysed by Isabelle De Groote, of Liverpool John Moores University, who was able to confirm that the hollows in the sediment were
hominin The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos) and in standard usage excludes the genus ''Gorilla'' (gorillas). The t ...
footprints. Facts concerning the discovery were published by Ashton and other members of the research team in February 2014 in the science journal '' PLOS ONE''.


Description

Approximately fifty footprints were found in an area measuring nearly . Twelve were largely complete and two showed details of toes. The footprints of approximately five individuals have been identified, including adults and children. The footprints measured between , thought to equate to heights between . It is believed that the individuals who made them were from the species ''
Homo antecessor ''Homo antecessor'' (Latin "pioneer man") is an Extinction, extinct species of archaic human recorded in the Spanish Archaeological Site of Atapuerca, Sierra de Atapuerca, a productive archaeological site, from 1.2 to 0.8 million years ago durin ...
'', known to have lived in the
Atapuerca Mountains The Atapuerca Mountains ( es, Sierra de Atapuerca) is a karstic hill formation near the village of Atapuerca in the province of Burgos (autonomous community of Castile and Leon), northern Spain. In a still ongoing excavation campaign, rich fos ...
of Spain around 800,000 years ago. No hominin fossils have been found at Happisburgh. Analysis shows that the group of perhaps five individuals were walking in a southerly direction (upstream) along mudflats in the estuary of an early path of the
River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
that flowed into the sea farther north than it does today when south-east Britain was joined to the European continent. Archaeologists have speculated that the group was searching the mudflats for seafood such as
lugworm The lugworm or sandworm (''Arenicola marina'') is a large marine worm of the phylum Annelida. Its coiled castings are a familiar sight on a beach at low tide but the animal itself is rarely seen except by those who, from curiosity or to use as f ...
s,
shellfish Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...
,
crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...
s, and
seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...
. It is possible that the group might have lived on an island in the estuary that provided safety from predators and were travelling from their island base to the shore at low tide.


Dating

The Happisburgh site is too old to date using
radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...
, which is not suitable for sites older than approximately 50,000 years. Dating the site has instead been based upon
stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock (geology), rock layers (Stratum, strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary rock, sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigrap ...
,
palaeomagnetism Paleomagnetism (or palaeomagnetismsee ), is the study of magnetic fields recorded in rocks, sediment, or archeological materials. Geophysicists who specialize in paleomagnetism are called ''paleomagnetists.'' Certain magnetic minerals in rocks ...
, and the evidence of fossil flora and fauna in the sediments. Magnetic signatures within the sedimentary deposits indicate they were laid down between the two most recent geomagnetic reversals – the
Brunhes–Matuyama reversal The Brunhes–Matuyama reversal, named after Bernard Brunhes and Motonori Matuyama, was a geologic event, approximately 781,000 years ago, when the Earth's magnetic field last underwent reversal. Estimations vary as to the abruptness of the rever ...
around 780,000 years ago and the
Jaramillo reversal The Jaramillo reversal was a reversal and excursion of the Earth's magnetic field that occurred approximately one million years ago. In the geological time scale it was a "short-term" positive reversal in the then-dominant Matuyama reversed magneti ...
around 950,000 to 1 million years ago. The evidence of fossil flora and fauna using indicators such as the fossilized teeth of
vole Voles are small rodents that are relatives of lemmings and hamsters, but with a stouter body; a longer, hairy tail; a slightly rounder head; smaller eyes and ears; and differently formed molars (high-crowned with angular cusps instead of low-c ...
s, which provide very accurate dating evidence, pushes the lower limit back to at least 840,000 years ago. On this basis, the range of possible dates for the deposition of the sediments that the footprints were found in stretches from 850,000 to 950,000 years ago, but further research is necessary to narrow the window. A dissenting view has been presented by the geophysicist Rob Westaway, who proposed a younger date of towards the end of
Marine Isotope Stage Marine isotope stages (MIS), marine oxygen-isotope stages, or oxygen isotope stages (OIS), are alternating warm and cool periods in the Earth's paleoclimate, deduced from oxygen isotope data reflecting changes in temperature derived from data ...
15c, around 600,000 years ago. In the view of
Paul Pettitt Paul Barry Pettitt, FSA is a British archaeologist and academic. He specialises in the Palaeolithic era, with particular focus on claims of art and burial practices of the Neanderthals and Pleistocene ''Homo sapiens'', and methods of determinin ...
and Mark White, his views deserve to be taken seriously.


Pleistocene geography

At the time the Happisburgh hominins lived, a land bridge existed between Britain and France before the formation of the
English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
about 450,000 years ago. The ancestral River Thames flowed further north than it does today before converging with the ancient
Bytham River The Bytham River is said to have been one of the great Pleistocene rivers of central and eastern England until it was destroyed by the advancing ice sheets of the Anglian Glaciation around 450,000 years ago. The river is named after Castle Byth ...
, while the landscape of a large part of modern-day East Anglia consisted of a series of clay ridges and troughs known as the East Anglian Crag Basin. Happisburgh lay about further inland than it does today and was the site of an ancient estuary where the Bytham and Thames rivers converged to flow into what would then have been a maritime bay. When the footprints were made, the estuary occupied a grassy, open valley surrounded by pine forests, with a climate similar to that of modern southern
Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
. It would have been inhabited by
mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...
s, rhinos, hippos, giant deer and bison, which were preyed upon by sabre-toothed cats, lions, wolves and hyenas. As well as an abundant supply of game and edible plants, the river gravels were rich in flint deposits, which early humans would have found an invaluable resource. The Happisburgh finds mark the first time that evidence of early humans from 1,000,000 years ago has been found so far north. Palaeontologists had believed that hominins of the period required a much warmer climate, but the inhabitants of prehistoric Happisburgh had adapted to the cold, suggesting that they had developed advanced methods of hunting, clothing, sheltering and warming much earlier than previously thought.


Archaeological context

Happisburgh has produced a number of significant archaeological finds over many years. As the shoreline is subject to severe
coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landward ...
, new material is constantly being exposed along the cliffs and on the beach. Prehistoric discoveries have been noted since 1820, when fishermen trawling oyster beds offshore found their nets had brought up teeth, bones, horns, and antlers from elephants, rhinos, giant deer, and other extinct species. An exceptionally high tide in February 1825 exposed more prehistoric remains when it swept away sediment that had buried an ancient landscape of fossilized tree stumps, animal bones, and fir cones. In January 1877, a great storm swept huge
ironstone Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be con ...
slabs from the sea bed onto Happisburgh beach. The slabs preserved the impressions of leaves from oaks, elms, beeches, birches, and willows that had lived thousands of years ago. Pleistocene bison bones, found in the 1870s, provided the first evidence of early human activity; a re-examination of the bones in 1999 found that they were scored with tell-tale cut marks, indicating that the animals had been butchered by humans with stone tools. In 2000, a black flint handaxe, dating to between 600,000 and 800,000 years ago, was found by a man walking on the beach. In 2012, for the television documentary ''
Britain's Secret Treasures ''Britain's Secret Treasures'' is a British documentary shown on ITV hosted by Michael Buerk and Bettany Hughes. The programme features fifty archaeological discoveries that have been made in England, Wales and Scotland by members of the public. ...
'', the handaxe was selected by a panel of experts from the British Museum and the
Council for British Archaeology The Council for British Archaeology (CBA) is an educational charity established in 1944 in the UK. It works to involve people in archaeology and to promote the appreciation and care of the historic environment for the benefit of present and futu ...
as the most important item on a list of fifty archaeological discoveries made by members of the public. Since the axe's discovery, the palaeolithic history of Happisburgh has been the subject of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) and Pathways to Ancient Britain (PAB) projects, directed by Nick Ashton and
Chris Stringer Christopher Brian Stringer (born 1947) is a British physical anthropologist noted for his work on human evolution. Biography Growing up in a working-class family in the East End of London, Stringer's interest in anthropology began in primar ...
, funded by grants from the
Leverhulme Trust The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to suppo ...
and Calleva Foundation. Between 2005 and 2010, eighty palaeolithic flint tools, mostly cores, flakes, and flake tools, were excavated from the foreshore in sediment dating back to up to 950,000 years ago. The tools are believed to have been made by ''Homo antecessor'', the same species thought to have made the footprints, and are the earliest artefacts to have been found in northern Europe. Archaeologists are hoping to reconstruct the environment in which the footprints were made by analysing remains of flora and fauna from the sediments. The remains of 15 species of mammals, 160 species of insects, and more than 100 species of plants have been recovered so far.


Exhibition

The Happisburgh footprints featured in an exhibition, "Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story", at the
Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
in London from 13 February 2014. They were also included in an exhibition entitled "Moving stories three journeys" at the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
between 30 March – 30 April 2017.


Awards

The Happisburgh footprints won the 'Rescue Dig of the Year' title, voted for by the general public, in the 2015 ''Current Archaeology'' Awards.


See also

*
Ancient footprints of Acahualinca The Ancient footprints of Acahualinca (; es, Huellas de Acahualinca) exist in Managua, Nicaragua near the southern shore of Lake Managua. The region was once called "El Cauce". The tracks are fossil Late Holocene human footprints left behind in ...
– late Holocene human footprints found near the shore of
Lake Managua Lake Managua ( es, Lago de Managua, ), also known as Lake Xolotlán (), is a lake in Nicaragua. At 1,042 km², it is approximately long and wide. Similarly to the name of Lake Nicaragua, its other name comes from the Nahuatl language, possi ...
in
Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...
, dating to approximately 2,120 years ago. *
Eve's footprint Eve's footprint is the popular name for a set of fossilized footprints discovered on the shore of Langebaan Lagoon, South Africa in 1995. They are thought to be those of a female human and have been dated to approximately 117,000 years ago. This ...
– footprints of a single female found at
Langebaan Langebaan is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa on the eastern shore of Langebaan Lagoon. Langebaan is situated 120 km north of Cape Town, just off the R27, about 28 km from Vredenburg and 20 km from Saldanha Bay. ...
,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
in 1995, dating to approximately 117,000 years ago. *
Ileret Ileret (also spelled Illeret) is a village in Marsabit County, Kenya. It is located in Northern Kenya, on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana, north of Sibiloi National Park and near the Ethiopian border. Numerous hominin fossils have been foun ...
– footprints of ''
Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...
'' found at Ileret, Northern
Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
, dating to approximately 1.5 million years ago. *
Laetoli Laetoli is a pre-historic site located in Enduleni ward of Ngorongoro District in Arusha Region, Tanzania. The site is dated to the Plio-Pleistocene and famous for its Hominina footprints, preserved in volcanic ash. The site of the Laetoli fo ...
footprints – a line of
hominid The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the east ...
footprints, discovered at
Laetoli Laetoli is a pre-historic site located in Enduleni ward of Ngorongoro District in Arusha Region, Tanzania. The site is dated to the Plio-Pleistocene and famous for its Hominina footprints, preserved in volcanic ash. The site of the Laetoli fo ...
,
Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
by
Mary Leakey Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised ''Proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A pro ...
in 1976, dating to approximately 3.6 million years ago. *
List of fossil sites This list of fossil sites is a worldwide list of localities known well for the presence of fossils. Some entries in this list are notable for a single, unique find, while others are notable for the large number of fossils found there. Many of t ...
''(with link directory)'' * List of hominina (hominid) fossils ''(with images)''


References


External links


The earliest human footprints outside Africa found in Norfolk
– video of the footprints by the
Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...

Human Timeline (Interactive)
Smithsonian,
National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...
(August 2016). {{Authority control 2013 archaeological discoveries 2013 in the United Kingdom Archaeological discoveries in the United Kingdom Archaeology of Norfolk Homo fossils Paleoanthropological sites