quote:“When and where did humans first fashion footwear?” said Nelson Mandela University vertebrate ichnologist Charles Helm and his colleagues.
“Ichnology (study of the fossilized tracks, trails, burrows and excavations made by animals) holds the potential to answer this unresolved question in paleoanthropology.”
“The global record of sites from which tracks made by hominins who were shod — that is, wearing some kind of foot covering — have been considered is sparse.”
“Consideration of proxies for footwear use suggests two suitable regions in which to search for shod-hominin tracks of this age: southern Africa and Western Europe.”
“Inhabitants of these areas in the Middle Stone Age would have had the means, motive and opportunity to fashion footwear.”
In the research, Dr. Helm’s team analyzed previous studies on possible shod-hominin tracks from Western Europe, and searched on South Africa’s Cape coast for similar sites.
“Today, the ancient dune surfaces our ancestors walked along are cemented and preserved as aeolianites,” they said.
“We’ve previously reported on the tracks of our barefoot Homo sapiens ancestors along this coastline and now focused on three sites which appeared to be of hominin origin and were crisply outlined, but contained no evidence of toe impressions.”
“Next, we drew on our knowledge of sandals used by the indigenous San people on the sands of the Kalahari Desert to give us ideas about what ancient footwear might have looked like.”
“After studying museum specimens, depictions of footwear in the San rock art record and the oldest surviving examples of footwear, it was time to do a little cobbling.”
“We crafted various types of footwear and used them to create trackways on the beaches and dunes of the Cape south coast; then we analyzed them.”
“From these experiments it became clear that an open, hard sole design, with tracks made on moist, moderately soft but nonetheless cohesive sand, best fitted the findings at the three fossil tracksites.”
None of the three sites on the Cape coast has been dated at this point, although nearby dated sites suggest that they range in age from around 70,000 years to more than 130,000 years old.
“Though the evidence is not conclusive, we are excited about our discoveries,” the researchers said.
“They support the notion of southern Africa being one region where human cognitive and practical ability developed a very long time ago.”
quote:When and where did humans first fashion footwear? Ichnology holds the potential to answer this unresolved question in palaeoanthropology. The global record of sites from which shod-hominin tracks have been considered is sparse. Consideration of proxies for footwear use, in conjunction with areas of known Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic hominin tracksites, suggests two suitable regions in which to search for shod-hominin tracks of this age: southern Africa and Western Europe. Inhabitants of these areas in the Middle Stone Age would have had the means, motive and opportunity to fashion footwear. Ichnological evidence from three palaeosurfaces on South Africa’s Cape coast, in conjunction with neoichnological study, suggests that humans may indeed have worn footwear while traversing dune surfaces during the Middle Stone Age. The hominin track record may be biased towards identification of tracks made by barefoot individuals, therefore the development of criteria for the identification of shod-hominin tracks should aid in future interpretation efforts.
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