Experts Trace Oldest Human Footprints In Germany
In a study published today in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, an international research team led by researchers from the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment presents the earliest known human footprints from Germany. The traces were discovered in the approximately 300,000-year-old Paleolithic site complex of Schöningen in Lower Saxony. The imprints, which presumably originate from Homo heidelbergensis, are surrounded by several animal tracks – together they paint a picture of the ecosystem at that time. The project is financed by the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture and the University of Tübingen.
In an open birch and pine forest overgrown with grass there is a lake a few kilometers long and a few hundred meters wide. Herds of elephant, rhino and even-toed ungulates come to its muddy shores to drink and bathe. In the middle of this scenery stands a nuclear family of the “Heidelberg people”, a species of people that is now extinct.
“It could have looked like this or something similar 300,000 years ago in Schöningen, Lower Saxony,” explains the first author of the study published today, Dr. Flavio Altamura, fellow of the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen (SHEP) and continues: “For the first time we have examined the fossil footprints of two sites in Schöningen in detail. These traces, together with information from sedimentological, archaeological, paleontological and paleobotanical analyses, provide us with insights into the paleoenvironment and the mammals that once inhabited the area. Among the prints are also three tracks that match hominin footprints — dated to around 300.Homo heidelbergensis .”
The scientists assign two of the three human traces in Schöningen to young individuals who used the lake and its resources in a small mixed-age group. “Depending on the season, plants, fruits, leaves, shoots and mushrooms were available around the lake. Our finds confirm that the extinct human species lived on the shores of lakes or rivers with shallow water. This is also known from other sites with Lower and Middle Pleistocene hominin footprints,” Altamura said. The various traces in Schöningen show a snapshot of everyday family life and can provide information about the behavior and social composition of the hominin group as well as about the spatial interaction and coexistence with herds of elephants and other, smaller mammals, says the study. “Due to the footprints of children and young people, it is more of a family outing than a group of adult hunters,” summarizes the archaeologist and expert on fossil footprints.
In addition to the human tracks, the team analyzed a series of elephant tracks belonging to the extinct species Palaeoloxodon antiquus: a straight-tusked elephant that was the largest land animal at the time, with adult males weighing up to 13 tons. “The elephant tracks we discovered in Schöningen reach a remarkable length of 55 centimetres. In some cases, we also found wood fragments in the ruts that the animals had pressed into the ground, which was soft at the time,” explains Dr. Jordi Serangeli, head of the excavation in Schöningen, and adds: “One trace also comes from a rhino – Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis or Stephanorhinus hemitoechus – and is the first footprint of this species from the Pleistocene that was found in Europe.”