Possible shod-hominin tracks on South Africa’s Cape coast

Abstract

When and where did humans first fashion footwear? Ichnology holds the potential to answer this unresolved question in palaeoanthropology. The global record of sites from which shod-hominin tracks have been considered is sparse. Consideration of proxies for footwear use, in conjunction with areas of known Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic hominin tracksites, suggests two suitable regions in which to search for shod-hominin tracks of this age: southern Africa and Western Europe. Inhabitants of these areas in the Middle Stone Age would have had the means, motive and opportunity to fashion footwear. Ichnological evidence from three palaeosurfaces on South Africa’s Cape coast, in conjunction with neoichnological study, suggests that humans may indeed have worn footwear while traversing dune surfaces during the Middle Stone Age. The hominin track record may be biased towards identification of tracks made by barefoot individuals, therefore the development of criteria for the identification of shod-hominin tracks should aid in future interpretation efforts.

Keywords:

• Aeolianites
• shod-hominin tracks
• footwear
• ichnology
• Cape south coast
• Middle Stone Age

Acknowledgments

We thank Andre Brink, Emily Brink, Jack Carrigan, Robin Catchpole, Vibeke Viestad, Justine Wintjes and CapeNature and SANParks staff for their assistance and support. We appreciate the helpful review of a preliminary draft by Curtis Marean. We recognize and value the thorough and helpful Editor and Reviewer comments, which resulted in a substantially improved manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).