Image credit: Charles Helm
Posted on 09/15/2023 10:08:26 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A new analysis of ancient footprints in South Africa suggests that the humans who made these tracks might have been wearing hard-soled sandals.
Ichnological evidence from three palaeosurfaces on the 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 study is published in the journal Ichnos.
While researchers are reluctant to shoehorn in any firm conclusions regarding the use of footwear in the distant past, the prints' unusual characteristics may provide the oldest evidence yet that people used shoes to protect their feet from sharp rocks in the Middle Stone Age.
No direct dates have been assigned to the well-preserved markings found on stone slabs at three different sites along the Cape Coast, according to the study's authors. However, the researchers hypothesize that tracks discovered at a location known as Kleinkrantz may be between 79,000 and 148,000 years old based on the age of other nearby rocks and sediments.
The footprints show no toes, discerning it from barefoot markings, and instead displayed "rounded anterior ends, crisp margins, and possible evidence of strap attachment points.' Similar markings that are estimated to have been left between 73,000 and 136,000 years ago were located at a site called Goukamma...
Offering a possible motive for the use of such footwear, they go on to explain that coastal foraging involves clambering over sharp rocks while also posing the risk of stepping on sea urchins...
Despite their promising findings, researchers are reluctant to make any bold claims...
(Excerpt) Read more at arkeonews.net ...
Not exactly Doc Martens, but better that stepping on a prickly Sea Urchin with your full body weight.
Air Jordans were cheaper in those days.
The fact that feet are so sensitive makes me think our earliest ancestors were mowing lawns.
Thanks for this. Interesting that that seems to be modern man as far back as we go.
 Caveman Slippers |
I wonder if they wore asp gaiters.
I think our feet are as sensitive as we allow them to become.
I grew up in southern california. In summertime my brothers and I rarely wore shoes, and a little more frequently wore flip flops, but usually our feet were bare.
One brother and I use to run - just for running - on our neighborhood streets, barefoot, on asphault (the only sneekers I owned were saved for PE class at school or for Little League.
Our feet were so black my mom made us wear socks to bed.
It was a very long time into adulthood before walking on any surface registered a complaint from my feet.
I think our feet are only as much in need of shoes as we have trained them to be.
I had to look that up: Asp Gaiters: the H2O proof covering worn over the shin to keep legs dry while sloshing in cold, dirty water. Didn’t know that was what they are called.
My first thought was WAY off: Asp, the snake who (allegedly) bit and kilt Cleopatra.
Gator: Florida Gator’s Football team.
I hear that’s what really killed Jimmy Buffett.
Looks like someone needs to make a trip to Dollar Tree.
“And did those shoes in ancient time....”
In the second picture at the link, the one on the far left is clearly a paw print, and the ones leading up to it appear to be where the paws slipped in the mud.
Where there are women, there are shoes....................
He blew out his flip-flop.
Stepped on a pop top.
Cut his heel,
Had to cruise on back home..................
It helps to be as light as a child. Much easier to walk on rough surfaces when you weigh 60 lbs.
Those tracks look just like the ones I leave with my Bob Marley flip flops.
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