Superhighway of ancient human and animal footprints in England provides an 'amazing snapshot of the past'

Live Science ^ | published 9 days ago | Jennifer Nalewicki

[SunkenCiv]

Thousands of years ago, a swath of land along what is now the western coast of England served as a superhighway for humans and animals alike. Today, the ebb and flow of each passing tide reveals more of the ancient footprints that these long-gone travelers stamped into the once mud-caked route.

Reminders of their travels can be seen along a nearly 2-mile-long (3 kilometers) stretch of coastline near Formby, England. The footprint beds show how, as glaciers melted and sea levels rose after the last ice age ended around 11,700 years ago, humans and animals were forced inland, thus forming a hub of human and animal activity seen in the commingled footprints.

In a new study published in the October issue of Nature Ecology and Evolution(opens in new tab), researchers found that the trackways, some of which are more than 8,000 years old, date from the Mesolithic period, or Middle Stone Age (15,000 B.C. to 50 B.C.) to medieval times (from A.D. 476 to A.D. 1450). Researchers recovered seeds from alder, birch and spruce trees scattered within the layers of the route and radiocarbon-dated them to pinpoint the age of the tracks.

In total, there are a dozen "well-preserved" footprint beds, some of which are stacked, creating roughly 36 exposed layers, or "outcrops." These patchworks of prints contain foot impressions from not only humans but a variety of animals, including aurochs (an extinct species of ox), red deer, wild boars, wolves, lynx and cranes.

[SunkenCiv]

Study authors Alison Burns and Jamie Woodward inspect 8,500-year-old animal and human footprints in one of the mesolithic mud beds in England.

Image credit: Victoria Gill/BBC

[SunkenCiv]

[Larry Lucido]

“as glaciers melted and sea levels rose after the last ice age ended around 11,700 years ago, humans and animals were forced inland”

Someone set their A/C too doggone high.

[Track9]

‘forced inland’. The globull warming bias is ubiquitous. I doubt anyone felt ‘forced’ when they were walking these roads.

[Scarlett156]

Crazy! Thanks. :D

[mairdie]

Nice collection of articles today. Thank you.

[blam]

Probably my R1b/V relatives.

[dfwgator]

And did those feet, in ancient time...

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks mairdie! My pleasure.

[x]

Climate did change in those days. And if you wanted to survive you had to (were forced to) change your usual habits.

[carcraft]

Animals and people often travel the same roads. When I was in Idaho back country surveying logging roads at night we would see deer, moose, and elk n the roads. There were game trails in the woods just in off the roads.

[Track9]

Climate changes all the time. Regionally etc. Droughts, floods, temperature… I’m ‘forced’ to close the door in the winter time…. My beef is with the BS agenda pushing semantics. People lived probably 40 years back then. Hadley a geologic time frame.

[moovova]

[from occupied ga]

It was all those Paleolithic coal fired electric plants and the CO2 they produced that caused the glaciers to melt.

[seowulf]

Doggerland is another tragic casualty of global warming.

There is probably all kinds of neat stuff under the North Sea. Certainly more than footprints.

[SunkenCiv]

The Storegga Slide did what it did, but much earlier, kablam! The Doggerland keyword, sorted:

• New Imaging Reveals Hidden Ice Age Landscapes Buried Deep in The North Sea [09/10/2021]
• Breakthrough in Studying Ancient DNA From Doggerland That Separates The UK From Europe [07/24/2020]
• Scientists Find Possible Traces of 'Lost' Stone Age Settlement Beneath the North Sea [05/29/2019]
• Life was good for Stone Age Norwegians along Oslo Fjord [06/04/2018]
• Mysterious Graves Discovered at Ancient European Cemetery [02/16/2016]
• Hazelnut shells found at Skye Mesolithic site [10/25/2015]
• Mesolithic site on Skye to be investigated [09/04/2015]
• Doggerland: Secrets of ancient land submerged to be revealed [09/02/2015]
• Britain Imported Wheat 2,000 Years Before Growing It [02/26/2015]
• Ancient underwater forest discovered off Norfolk coast [01/31/2015]
• 'How Britain's Atlantis' and its tribes were wiped out by a TSUNAMI triggered by a landslide [05/02/2014]
• The real flood: Submerged prehistory [04/12/2014]
• Snails Reveal Ancient Human Migration from France to Ireland [06/23/2013]
• Biblical-Type Floods Are Real, and They're Absolutely Enormous [09/04/2012]
• 'Britain's Atlantis' found at bottom of North sea [07/06/2012]
• The Netherlands: Archaeologists Find Habitation Sites in Port of Rotterdam [11/17/2011]
• Mesolithic 'rest stop' found at new Sainsbury's site [07/23/2011]
• A Lost World? Atlantis-Like Landscape Discovered [07/12/2011]
• 'Incredibly exciting' rare pre-Ice Age handaxe discovered on Orkney [06/11/2011]
• The moment Britain became an island [02/14/2011]
• Stone Age remains are Britain's earliest house [08/10/2010]
• Neanderthal man was living in Britain 40,000 years earlier than thought [06/01/2010]
• Neanderthal may not be the oldest Dutchman [ 370,000 years B.P. ] [03/30/2010]
• How discovery off the Norfolk coast holds the key to Norway's past [03/19/2010]
• How a prehistoric 'super river' turned Britain into an island nation [12/02/2009]
• 9,000-year-old house reveals Stone Age lifestyle [08/11/2009]
• When Did Humans Return After Last Ice Age? (UK) [07/27/2009]
• Sea gives up Neanderthal fossil [ dredged up from the North Sea ] [06/15/2009]
• Scotland's most ancient home found -- at 14,000 years old [04/10/2009]
• Last Ice Age happened in less than year say scientists [08/02/2008]
• Exploration of underwater forest [Loch Tay] [07/16/2008]
• Archaeology: The lost world -- Death in the Mesolithic [07/11/2008]
• Paleolithic Handaxes From The North Sea (Neanderthals) [03/10/2008]
• Undersea slide set off giant flow [11/22/2007]
• Stone Age Site Surfaces After 8,000 Years [08/06/2007]
• (For all you NOVA buffs) Megaflood 'made Island Britain' [sharp illustrations] [07/19/2007]
• Giant flood separates Britain from Europe [07/18/2007]
• Megaflood Created Great Divide Between Britain and France [07/18/2007]
• Lost World Warning From (Under) North Sea [04/23/2007]
• Mapping an Underwater World [ Neolithic riverscapes ] [02/01/2007]
• Dating A Massive Undersea Slide (8,100 Year Ago) [01/05/2007]
• ARCHAEOLOGY: Stone Age World Beneath the Baltic Sea [12/09/2006]
• Biblical-style flood tore Britain from France [09/26/2006]
• Biblical-style flood tore Britain from France : Scientists Claim UK/France Land Mass Once joined. [09/25/2006]
• Flood Made Britain An Island 'In 24 Hours' [09/24/2006]
• (English) Channel's Key Role In Pre-History [09/16/2006]
• Stone Age Elephant Found at Ancient U.K. Hunt Site [07/10/2006]
• Tools Unlock Secrets Of Early Man [12/14/2005]
• Prehistoric Knives Suggest Humans Competed [02/02/2005]
• The Mysterious End Of Essex Man (UK) [01/23/2005]
• Archaeologists Excited By 500,000-Year-Old Axe Find In Quarry [12/17/2004]
• Stone Age Elephant Remains Found (England, Slain By Humans) [06/21/2004]
• Northern sea baffles archaeologists [03/24/2004]
• Scientists Discover Lost World (8,000 Years Old) [02/15/2004]
• Stone Age Sites Found Under North Sea (8,000BC) [12/09/2003]
• Migrants Poured Into Britain After Ice Age [10/26/2003]
• UK's Oldest Cemetery Identified [09/26/2003]
• Earliest British Cemetery Dated (10,000+ Years) [09/23/2003]
• Stone Age Settlements Found Underwater In Britain [09/11/2003]
• Giant Wave Hit Ancient Scotland [09/07/2001]

[SunkenCiv]

https://freerepublic.com/tag/storeggaslide/index

[zeestephen]

So, if each tide reveals more footprints, that would indicate that current glacial ice is NOT melting, and sea level is NOT increasing.

Reminds me of the response when melting ice reveals ancient human remains or human artifacts.

The scientific community claims the ice melted because of global warming, but, clearly, there was no ice on that spot when people were living there thousands of years ago.

[fso301]

Our state and local road networks largely are on top of wagon trails which were on top of game trails which originally were just animal trails.

For this reason, a great deal of history is beneath road pavement.