Ancient footprints oldest ever found in Americas

Archeologists investigating a prehistoric settlement on the coast of Calvert Island, B.C., have found 29 footprints retained in soft clay since the end of the last Ice Age, making them the earliest on the continent.

The findings, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, corroborates a theory that some of the earliest settlers to North America arrived by boat.

The 13,000-year-old human footprints, found underneath the muddy surface, were coated by a layer of sand, which was covered by a layer of gravel and more clay, thereby shielding them. Radiocarbon dating two pieces of pine wood found in the imprints and the sediment placed the footprints in the middle Stone Age.

Researchers found that the footprints, tracked in clay, belonged to at least two adults and one juvenile, all of whom were barefoot as toe prints indicate.

The discovery bolsters “the growing body of evidence that people who used watercraft were able to thrive on the Pacific Coast of Canada at the end of the last Ice Age,” says Duncan McLaren, an anthropologist at the Hakai Institute and University of Victoria and lead author of the study.

“It is possible that the coast was one of the means by which people entered the Americas at that time.”

Researchers were originally at the site in 2014, digging in hopes of finding “Ice Age sediments with archeological remains,” he said. Instead, they found what appeared to be a track mark in the area covered with thick bogs and dense forests. They returned in subsequent years to find the buried footprints, possibly of people gathered around a hearth, although no charcoal was recovered.

At the close of the last Ice Age, from 11,000 to 14,000 years ago, the sea level was six to 10 feet lower. The footprints were most likely left in an area that was just above the high tide line.

According to popular theory, humans first reached North America by an ice bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska during the last Ice Age.

Once across, the theory holds, these first people entered through a small corridor that became the entrance to the new world. This new research helps show that ocean-faring was another viable path.

While this line of research is still “in its infancy,” McLaren notes, next steps include looking for more “early period sites” by the shoreline.

“We are working to collect more information on areas that were ice-free during the last Ice Age and reconstructing where sea level was at different times in different places,” he added.

William Housty, a board member at Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department, gave the researchers permission to investigate the area in order to expand their knowledge of the ancient village there.

Researchers reached the remote location, surrounded by thickets, via ferry boats — the nearest road being roughly 40 kilometres away.

Science and archeology once again affirms the oral history that’s been common to the area for thousands of years, he said. Heiltsuk Nation has held on to these stories since “time immemorial.” Until now, it “never had any bite to it,” he said.