Two friends out walking their dogs along the eastern coast of Scotland unexpectedly found an archaeological goldmine. After wind gusts as strong as 55 mph blew away sand on the dunes of a beach near Angus, Ivor Campbell and Jenny Snedden (along with their pooches Ziggy and Juno) spotted the unique indentations in a layer of long-dried clay.
The pair contacted a local archaeologist, and researchers from the University of Aberdeen quickly descended on the picturesque seaside locale to preserve the discoveries. Since time was of the essence, the team improvised using a quickly assembled toolkit including Plaster of Paris purchased from a nearby craft store.
Thanks to the team’s rapid work, researchers have now documented Scotland’s first examples of ancient preserved human and animal footprints. Using radiocarbon dating, experts estimate these geological time capsules date back to around 2,000 years ago.
“We had to work fast in the worst conditions I’ve ever encountered for archaeological fieldwork—the sea was coming in fast, with every high tide ripping away parts of the site, while wind-blown sand was simultaneously damaging it,” University of Aberdeen archaeologist Kate Britton recounted. “We were effectively being sand-blasted and the site was, too, all while we were trying to delicately clean, study and document it. So it became a race against the elements.”
Although the entire find was destroyed within 48 hours of its discovery, Britton’s team managed to both physically and digitally map the location while also taking plaster molds of the scene. An initial assessment of the data indicates that the area was once visited by a mix of animals like deer, as well as humans. The findings date back to the late Iron Age—a pivotal time in the region’s history.
“It’s very exciting to think these prints were made by people around the time of the Roman invasions of Scotland and in the centuries leading up to the emergence of the Picts,” added archaeologist Gordon Noble.
Researchers have documented similar tracks at only a handful of sites across the United Kingdom, many of which no longer exist today.
“It is incredibly rare to see such a delicate record saved, taking only minutes to create and hours to be destroyed, a snapshot of what people were doing thousands of years ago,” said project collaborator William Mills. “While this site was very short lived, it demonstrates the potential for similar finds—any of the clays of the wider Montrose basin area could preserve more of this important archaeological information.”
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