Baffled diggers discover 5,000-year-old footprint of ancient fisherman

[The title was written by my editor.]

Ancient impressions found in Denmark during work on a tunnel project.

by John Tyburski

Copyright © Daily Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

First published at Daily Digest News on November 13, 2014

Leaving a legacy takes on new meaning in Denmark this week. Footprints thought to date back some 5,000 years ago were discovered during work on the Femern Belt link scheme, a project to connect the Danish island of Lolland with Germany’s Fehmarn island using an immersed tunnel. The region has been heavily influenced by the sea for thousands of years.

The researchers who found the prints speculate that they offer clues into how ancient people of the region worked tirelessly to cope with the powerful sea influences while fishing to feed their community. The prints were found near a system of fishing weirs consisting of gillnets fixed on stakes, constructs which also date to a similar time period.

“These prints show the population attempted to save parts of their fishing system before it was flooded and covered in sand,” said Anne-Lotte Sjørup Mathiesen of the Museum Lolland-Falster.

Sjørup Mathiesen and colleagues conclude from the two prints they found that two people entered a swampy seabed to gather their fishing sets and relocate them nearby.

“Their footprints were covered with a layer of sand and dirt shortly after, and have been there since,” Sjørup Mathiesen said in a statement.

One of the prints measured roughly the size of a U.S. men’s 9 shoe, while the other was smaller and was close to a women’s size five-and-a-half.

“One print is very small compared to the other. At the moment we can’t tell whether it belonged to a boy or a woman,” Sjørup Mathiesen said.

Archaeologists continue excavations at the site and hope that these and other finds will continue to shed light into how the ancient population lived.

“Here we have direct imprints from ancient people’s activities, which can be associated with a concrete event – a storm destroying the fixed gillnet on stakes. In order to secure the survival of the population, the fishing system had to be repaired,” Sjørup Mathiesen said.