Morocco.. Discovery of the oldest human footprints in North Africa and the southern Mediterranean
The oldest human footprints in North Africa and the southern Mediterranean were discovered in Larache, by an international research team led by the University of Bretagne Sud (UBS) in France, in partnership with Moroccan, German and Spanish universities.
A report from the University of Brittany Sud stated that these footprints of Homo sapiens were discovered on a rocky beach in Larache, and are about 100,000 years old. They were left by at least 5 individuals (children, teenagers and adults).
The same source pointed out that “these monuments (85 in total) are mainly directed towards the sea and reflect an amazing picture of what the search for marine resources could have been like by these individuals belonging to Homo sapiens who were inhabiting or crossing the coast of Larache about 100 thousand years ago.” .
This discovery, made by an international team of Moroccan, French and Spanish scientists, under the supervision of Moncef Essedrati (professor-researcher and director of the Oceanic Geology Laboratory at the University of Brittany-Sud), came during a field measurement mission conducted in July 2022, within the framework of a scientific research project on the origin of... And the dynamics of the rock masses spread along the southern coast of the city of Larache in north-western Morocco.
The report quoted Mr. Al-Sedrati as saying, “These fingerprints were left on the seashore in a sand bar that formed the upper part of the beach about 100,000 years ago.” “Thereafter, they were rapidly preserved, as a result of being covered by soft sediments, during a phase of low wave action, coupled with a period of low tide.”
According to him, the Larache archaeological site is one of the largest and best-preserved Late Pleistocene archaeological sites in the world, and the only documented site in North Africa and the southern Mediterranean.
Source : websites