Happisburgh footprints facts for kids
The oldest hominin footprints in Europe are in Britain. They are about 800,000 years to a million years old. They were found on Happisburgh beach, East Anglia in May 2013.
The archaeologists describe them as "the oldest known hominin footprint surface outside Africa at between ca. 1 million and 0.78 million years ago". The site is known for its preservation of sediments with early Pleistocene fauna and flora. Since 2005 flint tools have been found. This means humans occupied northern Europe at least 350,000 years earlier than was thought before.
The footprints were found in sediment, partially covered by beach sand, at low tide on the shore at Happisburgh. Stormy weather had washed away the sand, leaving the sediment exposed. Because the sediment was soft, and lay below the high tide mark, the tides quickly eroded the exposed sediment, and in two weeks the footprints had all been destroyed. The team worked during low tides, often in pouring rain, to record 3D images of all the footprints.
Images for kids
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Plan of the Happisburgh site, showing exposed and recorded foreshore sediments and location of the footprint surface
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Photographs of Area A at Happisburgh, showing: (a) view of footprint surface looking north; and (b) view of footprint surface looking south, also showing underlying horizontally bedded laminated silts
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The Happisburgh footprints with a camera lens cap for scale
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Paleolithic handaxe, from Happisburgh, found on the beach by a man walking his dog in 2000
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