Archaeologists in Morocco discovered over 80 human footprints dating back 100,000 years, considered to be the oldest in North Africa.
Archaeologists from Morocco, Spain, France, and Germany discovered the footprints on the coast of Larache, a city 90 kilometres (55 miles) south of Tangier, which were most likely left by five homo sapiens, including children.
“This group (of homo sapiens) was crossing the beach towards the sea, probably in search of food and shellfish,” Anass Sedrati, curator of the Lixus Larache archeological site, told AFP.
“They were probably fishermen or gatherers.”
The researchers, whose findings were published in the scientific journal Nature in January, stated that the footprints were among the best-preserved human traces in the world, as well as the oldest in North Africa and the southern Mediterranean.
“This discovery was made during a field mission in July 2022, as part of a scientific research project on the origins and dynamics of the boulders strewn along the coastline,” stated the researchers from France’s Universite Bretagne Sud.
In 2017, some Homo sapiens fossils dating back 300,000 years were discovered in northwest Morocco, resetting the estimated genesis of the human species by 100,000 years.
The footprints at Larache were more proof of the region’s importance in human history, according to Anass Sedrati, who also noted the discovery of animal tracks.
“We must preserve this remarkable heritage site, even if it is threatened by rising sea levels and storms,” the study project’s chairman, Mouncef Sedrati, told AFP.
“Other footprints will be discovered as sediments erode,” he said.
“It would be interesting then to follow this erosion and uncover new traces that would provide more details on homo sapiens who lived along this coast.”