Photos Show 13,000-year-old Footprints Found in Canada

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March 28, 2018

Researchers have published photos of footprints made 13,000 years ago in what is now western Canada.

Ancient footprints

Archaeologists from the University of Victoria in British Columbia and the Hakai Institute found 29 human footprints on the shoreline of Calvert Island, off the coast of British Columbia. The footprints were of three different sizes, one small enough that the researchers think it was made by a child.

The archaeology team began excavations on the island in 2014. They found middens dating to 6,100 years ago. They also found the first footprint, nearly two feet below the current beach surface; black sand and gravel filled the print, itself impressed into clay. Radiocarbon dating of bits of wood found in the print heel produced the date of 13,000 years ago, during the last ice age. The area at the time was known as Beringia, encompassing a large land bridge that connected what now is Alaska and Siberia.

Calvert Island map

The researchers returned in 2015 and 2016 and found 28 other footprints, some of which still showed impressions of arches and toes. The confirmation of three different sizes of prints served as evidence of a migration from Asia to North America, the researchers said.

The initial announcement of the discovery of the footprints came in 2014 and 2015. The results of the latest study, including color photographs, appear in the journal Plos One.

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Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2018
David White

Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2019
David White