Revealed: The Runners Of 20,000BC

SMH ^ | 12-22-2005 | Deborah Smith

[blam]

Revealed: the runners of 20,000BC

Email Print Normal font Large font By Deborah Smith
Science Editor
December 22, 2005

Steps back in time … the prints in Mungo National Park. Photo: Michael Amendolia, with traditional landowners' permission

HUNDREDS of human footprints dating back to about 20,000BC - the oldest in Australia and the largest collection of its kind in the world - have been discovered in Mungo National Park in western NSW.

They were left by children, adolescents and adults at the height of the last ice age as they ran and walked across a moist clay area near the Willandra Lakes.

Some people appear to have been hunting, with one very tall man sprinting at about 20kmh.

The first footprint was spotted by Mary Pappin Junior, of the Mutthi Mutthi people, two years ago and more than 450 more have been uncovered by a team led by Steve Webb of Bond University.

Professor Webb said the find provided a unique glimpse into the lives of those who lived in the arid inland. "It brings these people to life in a way no other archaeological evidence can. You can see how the mud squelched between their toes."

The traditional custodians of the area, members of the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area Three Traditional Tribal Groups Elders Corporation, said they were very excited by the find.

Ms Pappin, a Mutthi Mutthi elder, said walking alongside the footprints was like "walking with a family group today. They're the same people".

She believed the prints had been revealed from under the sand dunes "to let the rest of the world know how clever our people really were, living and surviving in their environment".

Roy Kennedy, a Ngiyampaa elder, said the area had been a special meeting place for his tribe since the Dreamtime. "It was an oasis in the desert."

About 20,000 years ago the now dry lakes would have contained fish, mussels and crayfish.

The team estimated the height of the people from their foot size, and their speed from the distance between paces. Professor Webb has also recently excavated two 17,000-year-old skeletal remains found about six kilometres away. "They were athletic and very strong and fit. I assume some of the men on this site were very similar," he said.

Dave Johnston, chairman of the elders corporation, said the site was closed to the public to preserve it, and the elders were developing a management, conservation and tourism plan.

The team, including Matthew Cupper of the University of Melbourne and Richard Robins of the University of New England, have published results on 124 footprints online ahead of print publication in the Journal of Human Evolution.

FEET OF HISTORY

* 457 footprints, made by adults and children, found in Mungo National Park.

* Footprints 19,000-23,000 years old.

* Laid down in wet clay containing calcium carbonate that hardened like concrete, then covered in a layer of protective clay and sand.

* Prints between 13cm and 30cm (size 11) in length.

* One track of a man almost two metres tall running at 20kmh.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[starfish923]

Perhaps there was a giant set of speakers playing Ethel Merman CDs and they all simply ran away as fast as they could.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam. Excellent find (both the prints and the article).

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[linear]

I'm guessing it was the day after Thanksgiving and they were sprinting to get the 50% off on LCD TVs.

Can you tell I'm burnt out on shopping?

[colorado tanker]

Hey, The Merm still has some fans out here!

[Flavius]

Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area Three Traditional Tribal Groups Elders Corporation

WLRWHATTTGEC's coooool name

[aimhigh]

human footprints dating back to about 20,000BC

Hogwash. Why not just add another 100,000 years. To claim these prints would prevail against weatherization back then, until now, for 20,000 years is ludicrous.

[Natural Law]

Hey Einstein, do you need someone to connect the dots for you every time? The foot prints were laid down in moist clay near the banks of a now dry lake. the prints would have been silted in and then dried when the lake dried up resulting in a mudbrick. The story also mentioned that the prints are now emerging from under dunes. The sand dunes would have protected them for thousands of hears from the effects of erosion.

As a side note, there are prints preserved in sedimentary rock well over 200 million years old.

[badgerlandjim]

Global warming has since dried up these wetlands - damned western civilization...

[7thson]

Bush's fault! /sarc

[Wolfstar]

As a side note, there are prints preserved in sedimentary rock well over 200 million years old.

Such facts are lost on those whose intelligence quotient falls on the low side of the human intelligence bell curve.

[Hegemony Cricket]

or, Maybe they were just "revved up like a duece, another runner in the night"?

[r9etb]

Hey Einstein, do you need someone to connect the dots for you every time? The foot prints were laid down in moist clay near the banks of a now dry lake. the prints would have been silted in and then dried when the lake dried up resulting in a mudbrick. The story also mentioned that the prints are now emerging from under dunes. The sand dunes would have protected them for thousands of hears from the effects of erosion.

Actually, uber-Einstein, your scenario doesn't even match the one printed in the article. Perhaps your belligerence should be more self-directed?

[wolfcreek]

As a side note, there are prints preserved in sedimentary rock well over 200 million years old.

I can attest to that. Our HOA owns land along a river that runs through the property. There are dino tracks exposed in the bedrock and area universities often come to study them. The problem is, as erosion wares away at these tracks, they will only be visible for a few more years.

[Natural Law]

I suspect that we are dealing with the shallow end of the gene pool.

[DugwayDuke]

"I'm guessing it was the day after Thanksgiving and they were sprinting to get the 50% off on LCD TVs."

I'll bet that if they look around they'll find evidence of a pre-historic walmart around there somewhere.

[Wolfstar]

I suspect that we are dealing with the shallow end of the gene pool.

Indeed.

[vollmond]

I suspect that we are dealing with the shallow end of the gene pool.

It can be argued that competition for resources in the shallow end can result in "tougher/smarter" organisms. Those living the fat and happy life in the deep end become lunch later when the two sides meet.

[MillerCreek]

So, a man from the Somalian desert will eventually eat Ted Kennedy?

Alrighty, then.

~;-D