The Happisburgh footprints were a set of fossilized hominid footprints that date to the end of the Early Pleistocene, around 850–950,000 years ago. They were discovered in May 2013 in a newly uncovered sediment layer of the Cromer Forest Bed on a beach at Happisburgh in Norfolk, England, and carefully photographed in 3D before being destroyed by the tide shortly afterwards. Research results on the footprints were announced on 7 February 2014, identifying them as the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa. Before the Happisburgh discovery, the oldest known footprints in Europe were the Ciampate del Diavolo tracks found at the Roccamonfina volcano in Italy, dated to around 350,000 years ago. Winning the 2015 'Rescue Dig of the Year' award, the Happisburgh footprint discovery caught the public eye. It was featured in an exhibition in London's Natural History Museum.
Discovery
The footprints were discovered in May 2013 by Nicholas Ashton, curator at the British Museum, and Martin Bates, from Trinity St David's University in Wales, who were carrying out research as part of the Pathways to Ancient Britain (PAB) project. The footprints were found in the sediment, partially covered by beach sand, at low tide on the foreshore at Happisburgh. The sediment had been laid down in the estuary of a long-vanished river and subsequently been covered by sand, preserving its surface. The layer of sediment underlies a cliff on the beach, but after stormy weather, the protective layer of sand was washed away and the sediment exposed. The sediments are stratigraphically considered to belong to the Cromer Forest Bed unit. Because of the softness of the sediment, which lay below the high tide mark, tidal action eroded it, and within two weeks, the footprints had been destroyed. Although the researchers could not preserve the footprints, they worked during periods of low tide, often in pouring rain, to record 3D images of all the footprints by using photogrammetry. The images were analysed by Isabelle De Groote of Liverpool John Moores University, who was able to confirm that the hollows in the sediment were hominin footprints. Facts concerning the discovery were published by Ashton and other members of the research team in February 2014 in the science journal PLOS ONE.
Description
Approximately fifty footprints were found in an area measuring nearly 40 m2 (430 sq ft). Twelve were largely complete, and two showed details of toes. The footprints of approximately five individuals have been identified, including adults and children. The footprints measured between 140 and 260 mm (5.5 and 10.2 in), thought to equate to heights between 0.9 and 1.7 m (2 ft 11 in and 5 ft 7 in). It has been tentatively proposed that the individuals who made them were from the species Homo antecessor, known to have lived in the Atapuerca Mountains of northern Spain around 800,000 years ago. No hominin fossils have been found at Happisburgh. A later 2020 study which analysed the footprints argued that they were similar to footprints attributed to Homo erectus from Ileret, Kenya. Analysis shows that the group of perhaps five individuals was walking in a southerly direction (upstream) along mudflats in the estuary of an early path of the River Thames that flowed into the sea farther north than it did when south-east Britain was joined to the European continent. Archaeologists have speculated that the group was searching the mudflats for seafood such as lugworms, shellfish, crabs, and seaweed. It is possible that the group might have lived on an island in the estuary that provided safety from predators and were travelling from their island base to the shore at low tide.
Dating The Happisburgh site is too old to date using radiocarbon dating, which is unsuitable for sites older than approximately 50,000 years. Dating the site has instead been based upon stratigraphy, palaeomagnetism, and the evidence of fossil flora and fauna in the sediments. Magnetic signatures within the sedimentary deposits indicate they were laid down between the two most recent geomagnetic reversals – the Brunhes–Matuyama reversal around 780,000 years ago and the Jaramillo reversal around 950,000 to 1 million years ago. The evidence of fossil flora and fauna using indicators such as the fossilized teeth of voles, which provide very accurate dating evidence, pushes the lower limit back to at least 840,000 years ago. On this basis, the range of possible dates for the deposition of the sediments that the footprints were found in stretches from 850,000 to 950,000 years ago, but further research is necessary to narrow the window. A dissenting view has been presented by the geophysicist Rob Westaway, who proposed a younger date of towards the end of Marine Isotope Stage 15c, around 600,000 years ago. In the view of paleontologist Paul Pettitt and Mark White, Westaway's views deserve to be taken seriously.
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