Two men walking their dogs on a beach in Scotland saw human and animal footprints 2,000 years ago. Although ancient footprints have been found at a handful of sites in England, this is the first such site to be recorded in Scotland.
Ivor Campbell and Jenny Sneddon saw the prints at Lonan Bay in Angus, East Scotland, after a severe storm in January. The storm damaged the sand dunes, exposing a layer of soil. The pair thought the marks on the wet ground looked like footprints, so they notified Aberdeenshire Council, who commissioned University of Aberdeen archaeologist Kate Burton and her team to investigate the find.
Time was of the essence. The tide was high and the winds were very strong, with gusts of up to 55 miles per hour blowing sand over the prints. Under these difficult conditions, the team had to document the prints as thoroughly as possible before they disappeared. When the wind blew, they photographed the site with a drone, photographed the prints with cameras on the ground and then used the images to create a 3D rendering of the remains. He made plaster casts of barefoot humans and left prints of various species of animals, including red deer and deer. They also took samples of plant remains deposited under the footprints.
Just 48 hours after the report, the site and its footprints were destroyed. The team returned to the University of Aberdeen laboratory where they radiocarbon tested the plant remains, confirming a date of ca. 2,000 years old.
“It’s a real solid link to the region’s past,” added team member Professor Noble. “The late Iron Age dates are consistent with what is known about the rich archeology of the nearby Lunan Valley. It is very interesting to think that these prints were made by people around the time of the Roman invasion of Scotland and the centuries before the appearance of images.”
Archaeologists say the unique find offers a window into human activity and the changing nature of the landscape along the Angus coastline.
Dr William Mills added: “It is incredibly rare to have preserved such a fragile record, which took only minutes to make and hours to destroy, a snapshot of what people were doing thousands of years ago. The site also tells us how this sandy beach was now a mudflat and humans were using the environment, perhaps to hunt for such a plant.
