Archaeological find 90,000-year-old human footprints in Morocco

During a survey on the Moroccan coast, an international archaeological team led by Prof. Dr. Moncef Essedrati uncovered 90,000-year-old footprints believed to belong to humans

An international research team led by Prof. Dr. Moncef Essedrati from the French University of Southern Brittany has discovered 90,000-year-old human footprints on a beach in Larache, Morocco.

The discovery of the footprints was announced as the oldest human footprints ever recorded in North Africa and the southern Mediterranean.

Using optically stimulated luminescence dating, a cutting-edge method that determines when certain minerals were last exposed to heat or sunlight, the research team discovered that modern humans walked on this beach 90,000 years ago.

Prof. Essedrati told Live Science, “Between the tides, I told my team that we should go north and explore another beach. We were very surprised when we found the first trace. At first we were not convinced that it was a footprint, but then we found more traces.”

In 2022, the footprints described in a newly published article in Nature were discovered. These footprints, 85 in total, originate from people of various age groups and were found along two slopes.

With the discovery of different caves in the same area, the team aims to conduct further analysis to explain why humans existed on the coast.

Source: Newsroom