More footprint sets located at Laetoli

FRESH sets of legendary footprints, believed to belong to earliest human beings who lived in Northern Tanzania nearly 4 million years ago, have been discovered in Laetoli Escarpments, within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

The latest historical discovery is the result of painstaking work by two Tanzanian Scientists, Prof Fidelis Masao, a researcher and senior lecturer in archaeology, and his colleague, Dr Elgidius Ichumbaki, from the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).

Dr Fidelis Masao explained here that the footprints are located about 60 metres from the site where similar humanoid prints were found by Dr Mary Leakey in 1976 and experts are still working in the area to see if there could be more pre-historic human trails.

“As soon as we made the new discoveries I called Richard, the son of Dr Mary Leakey, in Nairobi to inform him about the fresh set of prints,” said Dr Masao.

“As far as Richard is concerned, discovering humanoid trails is one thing, but preserving the same, is the most challenging thing and if ultimate care wasn’t taken, then the prints may disappear faster, than the time taken to expose them,” stated the don.

Dr Masao had just received a team of experts from Italy who have jetted into the country to conduct ‘photogrammetry’ of the newly-discovered ancient trails.

Photogrammetry, he explained, is the science of making measurements from photographs that will be taken from the footprints and that the output of photogrammetry at Laetoli will produce maps, drawings, measurements, and eventually 3D models of the trails to make some real-world scene of the same.

The footprints that were discovered by Tanzanian experts are located in three areas, the first comprising of seven sets of bi-pedals, the second has four sets and the third has two sets of hominid trails of a person or persons, moving from Southward to Northern direction.

So far, Tanzania is the only country in the world boasting the oldest marks of human beings in form of hominid footprints found in Laetoli area, of Ngorongoro.

These are reported to be 3.6 million years old. Neighbouring Kenya also reported to have discovered similar footprints a few years ago, but those ones apparently date back just, 1.5 million years ago.

Tanzania also has other imprints at Lake Natron shores, in Ngorongoro District, dating back some 200,000 years. Other countries that so far have aged hominid footprints include, Nicaragua, South-America, Korea and Australia but all these states feature trails that are recently timed between 20,000 and 30,000 years old.

The latest discovery in Ngorongoro reinforces that notion that all human beings in the world could have originated from Northern Tanzania, especially areas striding Ngorongoro District.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) Public Relations Manager, Mr Adam Akyoo, said the establishment was working to promote a special pre-historical tourism that will be mapped within Laetoli site and the adjacent Olduvai Gorge.

SOURCE; Daily News