800-year-old footprint photo: BBC
Wales, UK (BBN)-Geoarcheologists who helped discover the earliest footprints ever found outside Africa have been given an award for their work.
Dr Martin Bates of University of Wales Trinity Saint David discovered the 800-year-old imprints in Norfolk, reports BBC.
He was part of a team including scientists from the British Museum and Natural History Museum digging at a beach in Happisburgh in 2013.
The project was named rescue dig of the year at the Archaeology Awards.
Dr Bates recognised the footprints as human after studying similar prints at Borth in Ceredigion, and said: “Seeing them for the first time it was clear that this was something special.”
They were exposed at low tide as heavy seas removed beach sands.
Lampeter-based Dr Bates said the prints were from a range of adult and child foot sizes, up to a UK size eight, and were the latest discoveries after stone tools and fossil bones were discovered nearby.
BBN/SK/AD-17Mar15-2:40pm (BST)