The Devil's Trails: Middle Pleistocene Human Footprints Preserved in a Volcanoclastic Deposit of Southern Italy

Abstract

Three fossilized trackways of human footprints were discovered in a pyroclastic flow dated to 385–325 ka, along the western margin of the Roccamonfina volcanic complex in Southern Italy. The pyroclastic flow is zeolite-rich and was probably emplaced at a relatively low temperature, forming a nonwelded pyroclastic deposit. The well-preserved footprints show the interesting strategies used by ancient humans in descending steep slopes. The footprints, short and very broad, are entaxonic, plantigrade, with an average length of 24cm and an average width of 10 cm. The three trackways are narrow with an oblique pace of about 60 cm and a stride of about 120 cm.

If dating constraints are correct, the Roccamonfina human fossil footprints are the oldest known in Europe and among the oldest in the world. Moreover, they are preserved on a steep slope lying in a subaerial setting and are associated with handprints. For their potential in preserving evidence of behavior, these tracks provide unique insight into the activities of some of the earliest known Europeans.

Keywords:

• Middle Pleistocene
• human footprints
• Roccamonfina volcano
• southern Italy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are indebted to F. Sirano (Archeological Survey of Napoli and Caserta Province—Teano Office), A. Mammoli and A. De Simone (Municipality of Tora e Piccilli), for the cooperation in the field work and protection of the site. Thanks to J. Y. Kim (Korea National University of Education, Korea) for the unpublished data about Korean Pleistocene footprints and the invitation to contribute to the present special volume of Ichnos. We would also like to thank M. G. Lockley (University of Colorado, Denver) for many valuable and helpful comments that greatly improved the contents of this paper and M. Degasperi (Geological Survey, Trento) for drawing the block diagrams. We are grateful to J. Y. Kim (Korea National University of Education, Korea) and K. J. Houck (University of Colorado, Denver) for reviewing the manuscript.