2,500-Year-Old Footprints Discovered in Arizona

[Adsos Letter]

Source: Archaeology Magazine
Friday, January 22, 2016

Tucson, Arizona

—Preparations for road construction near Tucson, Arizona, revealed the 2,500-year-old fields and footprints of farmers, children, and dogs. The field and prints were well preserved by a nearby creek that flooded its banks and covered them with a mica-rich sediment that formed a mineralized crust. Archaeologist Dan Arnit of Innovative Excavating was able to follow the movements of specific individuals around the field. One set shows where a large adult walked diagonally across the field, stopped to work on a berm or open a weir to let in water, and then returned across the field and over a ditch on a different path. Another farmer was probably being followed by a dog, whose paw print was found inside a foot print. The field still has depressions where the farmers had placed their plants. “So we’ve excavated a number of these planting depressions and will run samples for pollen and phytoliths to get a sense of what was being grown,” Jerome Hesse, project manager for SWCA Environmental Consultants, told Western Digs. “We’re doing everything we can to document the footprints, because they are smack-dab in the middle of the road,” added Suzanne Griset of SWCA. To read more about Southwest archaeology, go to "Who Were the Anasazi?"

http://archaeology.org/news/4092-160122-arizona-farmer-footprints

This is the article in its entirety, sans a cool photo at the link. Sorry for the run-on formatting but it is the original format.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Beautiful information. So wonderful the soil was exactly right to capture those prints.

Tucson.

Another one accompanied by his own friendly dog. This is wonderful.

They clearly were well acquainted with agriculture then, and there.

Surely hope to hear more about this discovery.

Thank you.

[JesperKarlsson95]

2. Wow!

Wow! Amazing.