Impressions of footprints buried at a shoreline archeological site on Calvert Island, B.C. (Joanne McSporran/Discovery Islands Archeology Project)
More than 13,000 years ago, two adults and a child walked around a fire pit on Calvert Island, off the coast of British Columbia.
The footprints they left in soft clay near the shore were soon covered with black sand, which hid them until a team of archeologists led by Dr. Daryl Fedje and Dr. Duncan McLaren unearthed them recently, exposing what are believed to be the oldest footprints ever found in North America.
The find adds to a growing body of evidence that the first people didnt arrive in the Americas via an ice-free corridor east of the Rockies about 12,000 years ago, but rather followed a route down the Pacific Coast much earlier.
It makes the hair on the back of your head stand up, Dr. McLaren said of the moment the archeologists from the Hakai Institute and the University of Victoria made their discovery.
When we started finding them, the excitement in the air was electric. It was really quite amazing, he said Monday. You know there is no doubt in my mind what we were finding. It was just really cool.
The first find was made by Dr. Fedje last year, but it was an obscure, single print and its age wasnt known. The pit was closed up at the end of the season before radiocarbon dating was done. Over the winter they got the first evidence they were looking at something extremely old.
It came back at 13,200 years ago, Dr. McLaren said.
This year we decided to go back and open up the same area and thats where we discovered a [fire] hearth feature and a dozen footprints Im certain theres more there, he said. Some are obscure and some are overlapping. But in some cases you could see individual toes and heels.
He said the recently discovered prints seem to be focused around the fire pit, which has only been partially uncovered.
It looks more like a family group hanging out around a hearth. There are several different sizes of footprints, and from what we can tell there are three different individuals represented. A larger adult, a smaller adult and a childs footprints as well, he said. We could see toe prints [in one sample] and that is most likely barefoot, but there could be some kind of a moccasin [on others] there may have been footwear, but we cant say for sure.
In recent years, archeologists have steadily been pushing back the date of the earliest human presence on the Pacific Coast.
Last year Dr. Fedje and Dr. Quentin Mackie of University of Victoria found a stone fishing weir estimated to be at least 13,700 years old submerged in the waters off Haida Gwaii.
Dr. Fedje has described the investigation of ancient coastline sites as incredibly difficult because the retreat of the glaciers meant sea levels rose, drowning many of the locations.
Dr. McLaren said the Calvert Island site is below the high-tide mark, which made things harder for the archeologists.
Unfortunately, we are working in the intertidal zone, so you are racing against the tides when you are excavating there, he said. Its a fairly remote place where you dont have massive caissons [to hold back the water] or anything like that. So you are torn between these two fields: One that you should go very slowly and excavate very delicately, and the other is that you have to rush because the tide is coming in.
Dr. Tom Dillehay, of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said the Calvert Island discovery is interesting, but more evidence is needed before it is scientifically verified and its importance can be evaluated.
Dr. Dillehay, who led the research that uncovered ancient footprints at Monte Verde in southern Chile, said making such a find is a startling experience.
When we uncovered the footprint people were just stunned, he said. It is nice to have this kind of extra signature associated with an archeological record. It kind of adds a human element to it that goes beyond just the [stone tool] artifacts.
Dr. Dillehay didnt want to speculate, but said it would be interesting to compare the Calvert Island footprints to those from Monte Verde, which in 1997 was confirmed as the oldest known site of human occupation in the Americas, to see if they suggest a link between ancient people in Chile and those in B.C.
The past few years a number of new discoverieshavechangedthe time and migration of the Ancient Ones.
Dear Friend Kavika: This is noteworthy. We really don't know with any precision how North American is populated, or from where. Some Native American traditions claim Native Americans have always been here, not from an ice bridge over the Bering Sea.
Aside from this footprint, and some 15,000 year old discarded Pez dispensers with heads shaped like the Tweety Bird, and the occasional BOGO Groupon coupon for "Buy one Brontasaurus Burger Happy Meal, get the second at equal or lesserprice" welack adequate facts to know for sure.
There was one Bronze Age Timex unearthed that they think dates back 20,000 years. They are not sure, because it took a licking, and then stopped ticking.
Archeologically Yours,
Enoch (In a petrified leisure suit with blue suede shoes).
It is noteworthy niijii, beside the age it casts more doubt on the ''ice bride'' theory.
I still have my ''Dino the Dinosaur'' sign. Got it from a dinosaurcart stopon the interpath.
I'm sure that you look more than ''spiffy'' in your leisure suit and blue suede shoes. I do remember when you disguised yourself as a birch bark canoe.
So it could be 25,000 years old...Which would surely make the puzzle even more puzzling.
If I remember correctly, the longer that the item is tested the more accurate the age.
LOL