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Oldest Human Footprints in the Southwest Discovered at Tucson Construction Site
Western Digs ^ | January 21, 2016 | Blake de Pastino

Posted on 01/24/2016 5:26:35 PM PST by SunkenCiv

...The prints number in the dozens and depict the movements of several adults and at least one child, as they tended to their neatly arranged crops and the small irrigation ditches that watered them.

Discovered in November by archaeologists investigating a parcel of land near Interstate 10, the prints are likely the oldest human tracks yet found in the American Southwest...

What's more, the footprints provide a glimpse into the daily life of people who practiced some of the earliest agriculture in the region, in intimate detail...

The barefoot tracks are distinct enough that the movements of specific individuals can be followed across the 15-square-meter field that's been uncovered...

In one case, a set of deep, large prints shows that a heavy adult male trod diagonally across the field, stopped to do some work on an earthen berm, or perhaps to open a weir to let in water, and then took a different path across the field and over the ditch.

Another set of prints seems to have been made by an infant or toddler. And one print has a dog print inside it, likely made by a farmer being followed by his or her canine companion.

The tracks were preserved in such pristine condition because of a sudden flood from a nearby creek, archaeologists said.

The creek overran its banks soon after the prints were made, covering them in its uniquely mica-rich sandy sediment, forming a kind of mineralized cast...

The fields appear to date to the Early Agricultural Period, a span between about 2500 BCE and 50 CE when some of the Southwest's first farmers began cultivating crops, preceding the Hohokam by 500 years or more.

(Excerpt) Read more at westerndigs.org ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs
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This footprint is among the dozens found at the road-construction site, under a layer of mineral-rich sediment. Archaeologists estimate their age at 2,500 to 3,000 years, making them the oldest human prints yet found in the American Southwest. (Copyright Western Digs. May not be used without permission.)

1 posted on 01/24/2016 5:26:35 PM PST by SunkenCiv
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

2 posted on 01/24/2016 5:27:13 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: SunkenCiv

VERY cool!


3 posted on 01/24/2016 5:29:30 PM PST by RIghtwardHo
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To: SunkenCiv

Were they heading north from across the border? ;-)


4 posted on 01/24/2016 5:31:17 PM PST by r_barton (We the People of the United States...)
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To: RIghtwardHo

BC & BCE must be PC


5 posted on 01/24/2016 5:31:55 PM PST by Insigne123 (It is the soldier, not the community organizer, who gives us freedom of the press)
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To: r_barton

Were they heading north from across the border? ;-)


No, heading south from the ice bridge from Asia.


6 posted on 01/24/2016 5:36:01 PM PST by laplata ( Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: Insigne123

” a span between about 2500 BCE and 50 CE”

Eh, so what exactly is the criteria for dating something as BCE or CE? What is the dividing point?

(Can that even be spoken?)


7 posted on 01/24/2016 5:40:50 PM PST by CondorFlight (I)
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To: CondorFlight

How about BCE= Before Christ’s Emancipation, CE= Christ’s Emancipation?


8 posted on 01/24/2016 5:47:05 PM PST by DBrow
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To: Insigne123

Yes, it means Before Common Era.


9 posted on 01/24/2016 5:51:25 PM PST by ichabod1 (Spriiingtime for islam, and tyranny. Winter for US and frieeends. . .)
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To: RIghtwardHo

“And when I saw that big toe, I tell you, I was jumping up and down.””

That’s what Dick Morris said.


10 posted on 01/24/2016 5:53:34 PM PST by Rebelbase (A new batch of harpies has hatched in time for the 2016 election.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I have seen human footprints alongside what is claimed to be dinosaur footprints in stone. It doesn’t fit the narrative of scientists, so instead of looking at it with open mind, they ignore the evidence.


11 posted on 01/24/2016 5:53:59 PM PST by Glad2bnuts (Go Cruz GO, scare the RINO's to death)
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To: SunkenCiv

That is so cool. I wish there was more investigation done on sites here in the US. I think we have a rich, undiscovered history here.


12 posted on 01/24/2016 5:56:13 PM PST by Duchess47 ("One day I will leave this world and dream myself to Reality" Crazy Horse)
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To: CondorFlight
Eh, so what exactly is the criteria for dating something as BCE or CE? What is the dividing point?

Simply follow the convention established by the Venerable in 700 AD, but convert AD to CE and BC to BCE. CE = 'common era'. BCE = 'before the common era', AD = Anno Domini = 'In the year of our Lord', BC = 'before Christ'. In other words is academic anti-Christian bigotry writ large.

13 posted on 01/24/2016 6:04:24 PM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Prendre cinq et rendre quatre ce n'est pas donner.)
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To: Duchess47

They found a 7,000 year old site near me when they were excavating a sewerage treatment plant.

http://www.actonmemoriallibrary.org/resources-research/local-history/pine-hawk


14 posted on 01/24/2016 6:07:02 PM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Prendre cinq et rendre quatre ce n'est pas donner.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

Oh, thank you for that link.


15 posted on 01/24/2016 6:07:53 PM PST by Duchess47 ("One day I will leave this world and dream myself to Reality" Crazy Horse)
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To: SunkenCiv

Dog is domesticated at this time but still people walking barefoot.

I would think that to be kind enough to an animal would require some intelligence that would enable the making of shoes.


16 posted on 01/24/2016 6:12:23 PM PST by Beowulf9
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To: Beowulf9

Maybe they didn’t wear shoes in the field. This sounds like marshy, mucky ground, and then the river took it away.


17 posted on 01/24/2016 6:31:00 PM PST by ichabod1 (Spriiingtime for islam, and tyranny. Winter for US and frieeends. . .)
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To: SunkenCiv

Along the Navajo Trail


18 posted on 01/24/2016 6:37:51 PM PST by Insigne123 (It is the soldier, not the community organizer, who gives us freedom of the press)
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To: Beowulf9

They saved the shoes for stomping on grapes.


19 posted on 01/24/2016 7:03:10 PM PST by Rockpile (GOP legislators-----caviar eating surrender monkeys.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Waaaaaaait a minute .... the picture of that track in the mud has a dew claw.....:o)


20 posted on 01/24/2016 7:19:20 PM PST by Squantos ( Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet ...)
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