26-02-2025
Fossil footprints in New Mexico reveal what may be oldest known handcarts, researchers say
WHITE SANDS, N.M. (KRQE) – New research of drag marks found alongside ancient human footprints discovered in White Sands National Park may represent one of the earliest pieces of evidence for the use of transport technology.
Follow-up study confirms age of fossil human footprints found at White Sands National Park
The research was published in the journal 'Quaternary Science Advances' in January and was compiled by a team of experts from across the United States and the United Kingdom. Two of those researchers were Sally Reynolds, an associate professor in Hominin Palaeoecology at Bournemouth University, and her husband Matthew Bennett, a professor of Environmental and Geographical Sciences at Bournemouth University.
'We found these traces pre-COVID, and they were just these long drag marks in the sand,' Reynolds said. 'So we were trying to think of the most logical explanations for these very few drag structures that we found. But over the years, they just kept popping up. Different places, different orientations, different locations.'
Reynolds and Bennett worked with other researchers to figure out what the drag marks alongside the 21,000 to 23,000-year-old footprints might be. The team first considered that the marks may have been from people pulling a canoe or branches for firewood, but they ruled it out after reviewing other research.
'By process of elimination, we thought, you know what? It makes most sense that people are using this technology to travel from an area of intense activity, probably back to their living area, which is how we came up with the idea of hand carts,' Reynolds explained.
According to the research, the carts, or travois, may have been made of wooden poles that were dragged.
Researchers have not found any evidence that animals were involved in pulling these carts, which suggests that they were pulled by humans. 'So it was clear that unlike the later Native American travois, which you may have seen pictures of, are drawn by horses or donkeys or dogs, these were drawn by humans. And suddenly we realized we were looking at the earliest transport technology, basically a wheelbarrow, but without the wheel,' said Reynolds.
Some of the footprints found near the drag marks may have been from children, due to their smaller size. Reynolds inferred that the children may have interacted with the travois. 'It just enabled, I think, the humans, the families who were there to collect more stuff,' Reynolds said, likening the interaction to children playing and trying to climb on carts at the supermarket.
'I like the idea of the kids just trying to run around these travois while they were being pulled and find a way to get themselves on it somehow,' Reynolds added.
The researchers did experimental work by making a travois to replicate the drag marks found in White Sands National Park in southern New Mexico. Tests of the travois were done on mudflats in Maine and in the United Kingdom. Examples from the tests were published in the journal 'Quaternary Science Advances' and can be found below.
Looking ahead, Reynolds said she anticipates that more evidence of these trackways will be found at White Sands National Park. She also hopes to find out what materials, likely wood, may have been used to make the transportation devices and what items, including food, people may have gathered in the area thousands of years ago.
At this point, the team of researchers felt it was time to share their best guess of what happened.'We've reached a point where we know as much as we're ever going to know. We want to just share our current understanding of these traces with the wider community. Who knows, perhaps somebody out there has got a different interpretation or perhaps some sort of corroboration that they could offer and something that ultimately will allow that part of the work to be carried forward,' Reynolds said.
To view the full research article, click here.
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