These footprints, discovered in Tanzania, were made by ancient people that are believed to have lived in that area
Over 400 footprints have been discovered in Africa by geologists. They are believed to have up to 19,000 years. These footprints, discovered in Tanzania were made by ancient people that are believed to have lived in that area. The set was preserved in the mud, not far from volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai. This volcano is considered sacred and is named the “Mountain of God”.
This is a great place for researchers because many other sets of footprints have been found in that area.
“It’s a very complicated site,” said William Harcourt-Smith, one of the researchers. “There’s one area where there are so many prints, we’ve nicknamed it the “dance hall”, because I’ve never seen so many prints in one place….it’s completely nuts.”
The things that were able to preserve the human footprints were the flow of debris and ash that came from the volcano. The researchers dated the footprints as Pleistocene. They also mentioned that this discovery can also show more about the way humans lived in that period, what they did and how they acted. It is also believed that people back then went to the volcano as the Maasai go now to show their loyalty and respect for Engai, their God.
The footprints that the researchers identified may have belonged to 12 people because there were 24 tracks. The experts believe that the people who left the traces traveled together and they were running when they left the footprints.
In order to find out more, the team of researchers made geochemical scans in the entire place. They also made 3D scans of the area. They want to keep the site preserved in order to find more evidence about the humans who left these traces behind them
The experts who discovered these traces say that more of these great discoveries could be in that area and they need to make more investigation there. The researchers want to study the found footprints in order to learn more about the ancient peoples. The behavior of the Pleistocene people is not known in detail and this can help find some interesting things about them.
The researchers need to protect the area if they want to make more discoveries. Let’s hope that they find more evidence about the ancient people.
Image source: Wikipedia
