9 April 2022 | New Scientist | 43once lived and where they travelled. “You could
say we see things beyond the archaeologists’
view,” she says. “That could be because these
were our ancestors.” There has also been at
least one case where a partnership between
researchers and people with traditional
knowledge has helped interpret the meaning
of footprints (see “Cave of the sacred bison”, left).
Bennett stresses there is always a risk of
pushing footprint analysis too far in pursuit
of a captivating story – what he calls “palaeo-
poetry”. It is tempting to argue that the woman
hurried because she was wary of roaming
sabre-toothed cats, but we will never know >Many human
footprints have
been discovered
at White Sands
National Park
in New Mexico
(below). Sometimes
excavations are
required to follow
the tracks (top)a metre away, taking the same route south.
They deduced that the northerly prints came
first because they are crossed and partially
distorted by footprints left by two large,
now-extinct animals, a mammoth and a giant
ground sloth. The human southerly prints, by
contrast, sit on top of the animal footmarks.
Statistical analysis showed no clear
difference in the size and shape of the
northerly and southerly prints, so they
were probably left by the same person. The
fact that this individual didn’t deviate from
their course on either journey is significant,
says Bennett. “It says: I’m on a mission.”
Who was this person? Bennett and his team
established that the prints were left by a slender
individual, probably a young woman. It is also
clear she was in a hurry. Running the numbers,
her pace was clocked at 1.7 metres per second,
which is faster than the average modern
walking speed. It is particularly brisk given that
the going was tough – the footprints record
plenty of evidence that the woman slipped as
she hurried on her way. “There was urgency
of movement,” says Bennett.
Special delivery
What was her mission? On the northerly
journey, some of the prints from her left foot
show a rotational slip in the soft mud, giving
them a banana shape. Bennett suspects she
was unbalanced on her left because she was
carrying a burden on her hip. At a few points
along the northerly trackway, we catch a
glimpse of that burden: there are a handful of
footprints belonging to a child of no more than
3 years old. It appears the woman was carrying
the child and occasionally put them down,
perhaps to rest or to give the child a break.
We don’t know the woman’s destination.
The northerly prints vanish into the White
Sands missile range, beyond the reach of
investigation. But there are no indications
that the woman was still carrying the child
in the southerly prints. One interpretation
of the events is that she was delivering the
child to someone. Whether she succeeded
or not, she returned alone.
Stories like this mean a lot to Kim Charlie
and Bonnie Leno. They are both members of
the Pueblo of Acoma near Albuquerque in New
Mexico, one of several groups of Pueblo people
who feel a spiritual connection to White Sands.
Charlie is a committee member of the regional
Tribal Historic Preservation Office, while Leno,
her sister, is a designated tribal monitor,
meaning she collaborates with scientists to
share her traditional knowledge of the area.
Both have visited White Sands to see the
archaeologists at work. “It’s just fascinating,”
says Charlie. “There are no words to describe
how you feel when you’re actually there.”
The fact that Leno discovered some footprints
herself during the visit – a human print near
one left by a giant sloth – only added to the
excitement. With her knowledge of the region,
Leno already has a strong sense of where peopleNPS/USG
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UNIVERS
ITY