World Review of Human Track Sites

Abstract

Human tracks have now been recorded at a number of sites across the globe. Lockley et al. (Ichnos 15:106–125, 2008) provides a definitive review of many of these sites and our aim here is to focus on a few important examples which are either in the authors’ judgement particularly significant or feature within this book. Sites can be grouped on many different criteria such as by: (1) geographical regions; (2) geological facies in which they are preserved; (3) their age and therefore potential species of track-maker; or (4) by their archaeological or palaeoanthropological significance. While there is a natural tendency to focus on the unusual, biggest, or oldest, in reality footprint sites tend to separate into those which pre-date Homo sapiens and those that don’t. Those that do are limited in number but have the potential to offer information about the evolution of gait between hominin species and as such they accord a level of significance far greater than other footprint sites. Such sites are few in number however and while Holocene sites may not have the glamour of older localities, they have the potential to offer important laboratories in which to explore the interaction of a track-maker’s gait with such things as substrate. For ease we have chosen to divide this chapter into those examples that potentially pre-date Homo sapiens (Pliocene to Early/Middle Pleistocene) and those that don’t (Late Pleistocene to Holocene).