Taking a step into the past: the oldest Homo Sapien footprint

Taking a step into the past: the oldest Homo Sapien footprint

By Ella Pilson Illustrations by Ed Farley

A curious thing happens when you look at an object from the past, whether this be a fossil, an ancient engraving or hydroliths etched inside an Egyptian pyramid. A flow of energy and connection fills you, encouraging you to see your life not as a single thing but as part of a long chain of events. In that one moment, the stretch between the world of our ancestors and ours doesn’t seem too distant. And one such experience was to be found on the sunny dunes of Garden Route National Park, South Africa, where in the spring of this year, a 153,000 year old homo sapien footprint was discovered.

The homo sapien species is one of the earliest human forms. It’s well known that humans came from chimpanzees, but what you may not know is that these early humans separated into 20 different species known as hominins. Most of these went extinct, whilst others evolved. The ancestors of the current human species evolved from the only group that survived - the homo sapien species. This is the closest to the modern human, becoming the point where certain physical and behavioural characteristics separated, such as bipedality (the ability to walk on two legs).

While there is some debate amongst palaeontologists about distinguishing homo sapiens from earlier hominin species, with the help of fossils and molecular data, there has been some agreement that this is where humans detached from their earlier form. One of the most famous and complete pieces of evidence of this was found in Ethiopia – a hominin of the species Australopithecus afarensis. This rare footprint, published in the journal ‘Ichnos’, uncovers more of this ancient world. It was dated using a method known as optically-stimulated luminescence, cleverly using light to reveal how long this imprint had been buried. The secret of its longevity lay within a particular type of rock known as aeolianites which acted as a natural cast in the dune.

These early ‘humans’ and those that followed actually show evidence of having their own distinct lifestyles. An early European form of Homo Sapiens called Cro-Magnons have been shown to have made markings on bone plaques similar to the lunar calendar, When collaborated alongside other evidence from the same time period and area (stone tools, art and jewellery), it confirms that these were areas where early modern humans not only survived and evolved, but truly thrived. They show signs of travel, spreading to other continents, hunting and harvesting shellfish, offering hope for discoveries in the future which could potentially date back to more than two million years ago. This has revealed even more about this species and the landscapes in which they lived.

But as a history student, what I find so mesmerising is not simply the age of this imprint or its scientific value, but the connection it induces. I think we get a sense of something far bigger than ourselves. There is something truly magical about the potential for a little piece of ourselves to survive for thousands of years and to be gazed upon by the next evolved species. As a species we have moved fast – this footprint therefore also serves as a reminder of how young we are as a species.

And of course, it raises questions about our future – with science becoming more sophisticated and advanced, and with artificial intelligence becoming an everyday feature of our lives, perhaps something more man-made or robotic will replace these seemingly simple tracks? With each new discovery, we need to dig deeper and re-examine, not only our lives now, but the legacies we leave behind.