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'Devils' trails' are world's oldest human footprints

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Sergio D'brante
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« on: October 15, 2008, 02:28:28 am »

'Devils' trails' are world's oldest human footprints
15:28 13 October 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Catherine Brahic
PrintSendFeeds The "devil's footsteps" were left in volcanic ash 345,000 years ago (Image: Elsevier / Scaillet)EnlargeAdvertisement
 It's official: the oldest human footprints ever found are 345,000 years old, give or take 6000. Known as the "devils' trails", they have been preserved in volcanic ash atop the Roccamonfina volcano in Italy.

The prints were first described to the world by Paolo Mietto and colleagues of the University of Padova in Italy in 2003 after amateur archaeologists pointed them out.

At the time, the team estimated that the prints were anywhere between 385,000 and 325,000 years old, based on when the volcano was thought to have last erupted.

Now, Stéphane Scaillet and colleagues at the Laboratory of Climatic and Environmental Sciences, France, have used argon dating techniques to verify the prints' age.

"Their more rigorous methods confirm that these are the oldest human footprints ever found," says Mietto. The new findings also confirm that the owners of the footprints were Homo heidelbergensis.

Trail blazers
Mietto is setting off next week to excavate a second site, some 3 kilometres away. Early visits have convinced him that there are more human footprints, and he says it is highly likely that they are the same age.

The excavations should help reveal a trail that was used by early humans.

Mietto says that based on their stride, the people responsible were walking, not running. What's more, the prints are in both directions: leading to the volcano and away from it. Their owners were therefore not running away from a volcanic eruption and the prints must have been left some time after the event.

Dating experiments have not always confirmed suspicions. In 2003, a team discovered 40,000 year old footprints preserved in volcanic ash in southern Mexico. But when a separate group dated the Mexican prints using the argon technique used by Scaillet, they found that they were 1.3 million years old.

Since this was before modern humans evolved in Africa – the team concluded that they couldn't be human footsteps after all (see the very first Americans.

Journal reference: Earth and Planetary Science Letters (DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2008.08.026, in press)

Human Evolution – Follow the incredible story in our comprehensive special report.

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn14924-devils-trails-are-worlds-oldest-human-footprints.html?feedId=earth_rss20
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Sergio D'brante
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« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2008, 02:29:39 am »



The "devil's footsteps" were left in volcanic ash 345,000 years ago (Image: Elsevier / Scaillet)
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Sergio D'brante
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« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2008, 02:30:44 am »

Civilization may well have begun on the Italian peninsula!  Smiley
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Bianca
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« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2008, 01:28:06 pm »






QUOTE:


"Civilization may well have begun on the Italian peninsula!"




Why not, Sergio, just about EVERYTHING did......


(WITH A NOD TO CHINA)
« Last Edit: October 15, 2008, 01:30:55 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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Bianca
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« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2008, 01:28:52 pm »




           







                 
« Last Edit: October 15, 2008, 01:35:23 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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Bianca
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« Reply #5 on: October 15, 2008, 01:37:28 pm »




               

                Parco Naturale Regionale Roccamonfina
« Last Edit: October 15, 2008, 01:39:23 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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Bianca
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« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2008, 01:42:11 pm »






                 

                 CALDERA OF ROCCAMONFINA
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Bianca
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« Reply #7 on: October 15, 2008, 01:47:29 pm »





                                   


Here, it is not rare to find fossil imprints of seashells on the rocks......



http://www.roccadevandro.net/Archivio%20stampa/art_ladefensa.htm
« Last Edit: October 15, 2008, 01:49:39 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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Bianca
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« Reply #8 on: October 15, 2008, 01:52:32 pm »

                     








                                                 Roccamonfina Volcano - John Seach






Campania, Italy

41.3 N, 14.9 E
summit elevation 1005 m
Volcano type unknown



Roccamonfina volcano has been extinct since antiquity, but is still shaken by seismic activity.

The oldest human footprints have been found on Roccamonfina volcano.



Eruptions of Roccamonfina Volcano

50,000 - 650,000 years ago

« Last Edit: October 15, 2008, 01:57:44 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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