What could be more likely to generate Deep Thoughts than finding 800,000-year-old footprints on the beach? The footprint Robinson Crusoe found may have had more immediate application to his daily life, but this could also stir the imagination.
In case you missed the story, here is Sudeshna Chowdhury’s version at the Christian Science Monitor.
“The earliest known humans in northern Europe have left evidence of their existence on an English beach, in the form of footprints.
“A team of scientists from the British Museum, Britain’s Natural History Museum, and Queen Mary University of London have discovered a series of 800,000-year-old footprints left by early humans in the ancient estuary muds at the Happisburgh site, an excavation site known for preservation of sediments containing ancient flora and fauna, in Britain’s Norfolk Coast.
“Scientists spotted at least 12 clear footprints, Nick Ashton, a curator at the British Museum, told the Monitor.
” ‘At first we weren’t sure what we were seeing,’ says Dr. Ashton, ‘but as we removed any remaining beach sand and sponged off the seawater, it was clear that the hollows resembled prints, perhaps human footprints, and that we needed to record the surface as quickly as possible before the sea eroded it away.’ ” More here.
I think these footprints call for a poem. Send me one? Even a haiku would be lovely.
Update 2/12/14
We who still know fear,
Thousands of years on, would keep
Your print from the tide.
Photo: Martin Bates
Area A at Happisburgh with detail of footprint surface. Scientists discovered a series of 800,000-year-old footprints left by early humans in Norfolk Coast, UK
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