Researchers uncovered evidence at White Sands National Park in New Mexico that suggests prehistoric humans used travois, a simple sled-like device, to transport their belongings over 20,000 years ago. According to The Independent, the fossilized traces include drag marks extending for dozens of meters alongside ancient human footprints, indicating that early inhabitants employed transport technologies much earlier than previously thought.
The drag marks were likely caused by humans using a travois, a simple framework of wooden poles, rather than by animals. Techno-Science.net reports that these marks appear as a single track or as two parallel lines, aligning with the structure of a travois consisting of two long poles connected at one end and dragging on the ground at the other.
The discovery pushes back the date of the earliest known evidence of transportation by over 10,000 years. The drag marks at White Sands are at least 20,000 years old, challenging previous assumptions that transportation technology emerged only around 10,000 years ago.
To validate their theory, researchers reconstructed simple travois with wooden poles and dragged them across mudflats. The marks created by the reconstructed travois showed similarities to the fossilized traces found at White Sands National Park.
The presence of footprints, including those of children, near the drag marks suggests that these travois were pulled by humans, not animals, with entire families likely involved in the movement of goods. There is no evidence of animals being used to pull the travois at Alkali Flat.
"These drag marks give us the first clue about how they moved heavy and bulky loads before wheeled vehicles existed," said Professor Matthew Bennett, an environmental scientist and geographer at Bournemouth University, according to New Scientist.
The study was published in Quaternary Science Advances, a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the study of past environments and climate change.
White Sands National Park is known for containing some of the oldest human footprints ever documented in the Americas. According to Scientias, discoveries in the White Sands area have rewritten the history of human occupation in America, including footprints that are 23,000 years old.
The travois is a rudimentary yet ingenious means of transportation that has been used by many cultures around the world, including indigenous populations in North America. Travois were widely used across the world, pulled by hand or horses, and were commonly associated with dogs or horses in historical documents and traditions.
The findings challenge the conventional idea that humans did not enter the Americas until around 15,000 years ago.
The presence of children's footprints alongside the drag marks reflects a theme of adults seeking resources with children in tow that crosses the millennia.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.