Posted on 01/04/2022 7:21:45 AM PST by Red Badger
Footprints on the Ciampate del Diavolo. (edmondo gnerre/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0)
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According to legend, the devil once took a walk down the side of a volcano in southern Italy, each step preserved forever in solid rock.
The tracks are known as the "Ciampate del Diavolo"' or "Devil's Trail" – but details published in 2020 reveal a less diabolical yet far more interesting story on how they came to be.
The mysterious footprints are well known to those living near Roccamonfina, an extinct volcano in southern Italy that hasn't erupted in tens of thousands of years.
Since 2001, researchers have sought to explain the dozens of impressions left by a small group of human ancestors and even a few animals snaking their way down the mountainside.
But a paper published in January 2020 suggested some individuals were actually heading back up.
Over recent years numerous expeditions have provided detailed measurements on a total of 67 indentations left by the scuffle of feet, hands, and legs, all divided across three distinct tracks headed away from the mountain's summit.
Thanks to the contributions by a team of scientists from institutes across Italy, we obtained details on a further 14 prints – these even larger than the others – some of which head up the mountain rather than down.
Radiometric and geological dating of the various rock strata have already established that the imprints were cast in the soft blanket of ash left in the wake of an eruption around 350,000 years ago, making them some of the oldest preserved human footprints on record.
But just who left these tracks? It's impossible to say for certain based on an assortment of dull shapes pressed awkwardly in time-worn volcanic sediment.
There seemed to be at least five different bodies behind the marks. Further investigations could help whittle down ideas on the sex, body mass, and perhaps even heights of the trekkers.
Given our own Homo sapiens ancestors developed their characteristic traits only 315,000 years ago, we can be pretty confident they weren't members of our own species.
But the researchers have some clues.
One of the clearer imprints provides clear evidence of a grown human male.
And the shapes of many of the footprints point to an interesting possibility. The broad nature of the hindfoot area, with the low rise of the arch, looks suspiciously like the feet of individuals buried in the Sima de los Huesos "Pit of Bones".
The owners of those 430,000-year-old remains have been a topic of debate of the years, progressing from Homo heidelbergensis to Neanderthal, to Denisovan, back to Neanderthal.
Assuming they truly are Neanderthals, it's a reasonable – even if not solid – bet that the footprints were left by a gang of young Neanderthal adults.
Still, the researchers were careful about jumping to conclusions.
"We have decided to keep the attribution to a specific species still pending," lead researcher Adolfo Panarello told New Scientist's Michael Marshall back in January 2020.
Just what inspired an ancient group of hominids to go trouncing through the cooling soot and debris after the mountain violently blew its lid is anybody's guess, though it's clear from the impressions that nobody was in a hurry.
Based on the leisurely pace of around 1 meter per second (3.2 feet per second), the handful of footsteps heading uphill, and a scattering of basalt artifacts found in the vicinity, we might imagine this was just another day in the life by an active volcano.
Slowly treading barefoot through material freshly deposited by a 300 degree Celsius (572 Fahrenheit) flow of billowing pyroclastic insanity isn't exactly for the faint-hearted either, no matter how tough your soles might be.
Going on a back-of-the-envelope calculation, the researchers estimated the blanket would need to have cooled to at least 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), meaning at least several hours needed to have passed between an eruption and the trek.
We might well imagine members of a community living in the shadow of a mountain known to occasionally spew out hot clouds of poisonous gas and muddy ash, with a small band setting across a familiar path to check out the carnage.
Perhaps disaster tourism isn't a recent thing, after all.
This research was published in the Journal of Quaternary Science.
A version of this article was first published in January 2020.
Perhaps. Walking back out after having tossed in the sacrifice — that obviously stopped the eruption.
This article got me to thinking. If you were a caveman living near that volcano you probably would have noticed that people getting too near it suddenly died from the poisonous gasses and associating that with an angry volcano god. There is nothing more awe inspiring to cavemen than a volcano. Volcano god is killing people one or a few at a time (poisonous gases) and sometimes huge groups (pyrocastic flows).
I would guess that some ritual forced them to climb to the top as soon as possible after an eruption. If they had shamans then he would have done the climbing in the hot ash, after some peyote or other plant drug.
Or he sends his assistant up there to check it out..............
By the time he got to the top, the footprints were probably wider (not reported) indicating he was on his above-the-knee nubs when he got there.
Walkie, walkie. No divie, divie.
*Commie-hella Harris was at the foot of the volcano giving a speech....had to get away.
The worst job for a caveman is Assistant Shaman.
“Hey assistant, I make magical object, you take to red lake of volcano god.”
Looking for food, animals that were caught in the eruption, pre-cooked and ready to eat.
Spock`s parents landed on the volcano to refuel, went down the side of volcano to take some Neanderthal virgins back with them. That why Spock is half Vulcan and half human. Vulcans can live a long long time.
Joe Versus The Volcano (1990) Official Trailer - Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan Comedy HD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmQDIne3CLo
Tom Hanks comedy. Fairly funny.
Thanks Red Badger.
[snip] Radiometric and geological dating of the various rock strata have already established that the imprints were cast in the soft blanket of ash left in the wake of an eruption around 350,000 years ago, making them some of the oldest preserved human footprints on record... There seemed to be at least five different bodies behind the marks. Further investigations could help whittle down ideas on the sex, body mass, and perhaps even heights of the trekkers... The broad nature of the hindfoot area, with the low rise of the arch, looks suspiciously like the feet of individuals buried in the Sima de los Huesos "Pit of Bones". [/snip]
Prehistoric human footprints reveal a rare snapshot of ancient human group behavior
Footprints, preserved in solidified ash, hint at human behavior from as long as 19,000 years ago. Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce, CC BY-ND
https://theconversation.com/prehistoric-human-footprints-reveal-a-rare-snapshot-of-ancient-human-group-behavior-138502
Prehistoric human footprints unearthed on Canada shoreline
Scientists find 29 prints on island in British Columbia, supporting theory that early Americans arrived from Asia
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/mar/28/footprints-sand-scientists-prehistoric-canada-british-columbia
The People Faster Than Bolt
The amazing athletic potential our genetics could hold
T8 is the reference to the individual whose fossilized footprints were found and revealed incredible running speeds.
https://medium.com/runners-life/the-people-faster-than-bolt-255832bc8b00
Bigfoot
Mysterious, heck!
How else did they expect them to get the virgin up there to stop the eruption>
Sacrificing a virgin?
I don’t think they had reached that level of civilization yet. Virgins were pretty hard to come by...................
“Bigfoot”
I was gonna say that! 😅
“There was free barbecued mountain goat for the taking. “
Yep, most likely reason right there.
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