More than 80 human footprints, around 100,000 years old, have been found on the coast of northern Morocco and are considered by researchers to be the oldest known in North Africa and the southern Mediterranean.
These Homo sapiens footprints, left by a minimum of five individuals including children and revealed Monday to AFP, were discovered in 2022 in Larache, 90 km south of Tangier, by a team of Moroccan, French, Spanish and Germans.
“This group of individuals was crossing the beach towards the sea, probably in search of food and shellfish, they were probably fishermen or gatherers,” Anass Sedrati, curator of the Lixus-Larache archaeological site, explained to AFP. .
According to these researchers, whose study was the subject of a publication in the scientific journal Nature in January, it is one of the best preserved sites of human traces in the world and the oldest in North Africa. and in the southern Mediterranean.
“This discovery took place during a field measurement mission in July 2022, as part of a scientific research project on the origin and dynamics of the rock blocks (boulders) which litter the coastline,” explain the researchers, led by the French University Bretagne Sud.
In 2017, remains of Homo sapiens dated according to researchers to 300,000 years old were unearthed on another site in northwest Morocco, pushing back the estimated origin of our species by 100,000 years.
Footprints of Homo sapiens, dated 100,000 years old, discovered on a beach in northern Morocco, photographed on February 5, 2024 / FADEL SENNA / AFP
The discovery of the footprints in Larache is further proof of the importance of this region in the history of the human species, noted Anass Sedrati to AFP, noting that animal traces had also been discovered.
“We must preserve this remarkable heritage site even if it is threatened by rising sea levels and storms,” according to Mouncef Sedrati, head of the research project.
“In the short term, other footprints will be discovered as the sediments erode,” according to this official. “It would therefore be interesting to follow this erosion and uncover new complementary traces which would allow us to provide more details on the group of Homo sapiens who lived along or resided on this Larach coast.”
