Heritage Potential of the Nahoon Point Trace Fossil Footprints
Tuesday, 31st May 2011
Article by K Cole
One of the oldest human trace fossil track ways can be found at Nahoon Point, East London, Buffalo City. The sandstone which captured the footprints of a young child 124 000 years ago also depicts tracks of a bird and two mammal species (on the same palaeo-surface).
As these fossil track ways are one of only a few with human prints on the African continent and contributing to the study of human evolution they hold the potential to be classed a national treasure and are being evaluated for some heritage status.
Excavation work on the site by Dr. Dave Roberts of the Council of Geoscience and Kevin Cole of the East London Museum, hopes to reveal further trace fossil evidence of the human track way at the site. One of the main objectives which may raise the heritage status of the site is for the researchers to find the extension of the human track way on the sandstone substrate which produced the find in 1964 by Bill Hartley and Rhett Kaiser. It is the hope that further footprints may be discovered in the near future to supplement those which fell and broke away from the site shortly after the discovery and which are now housed at the East London Museum.
A well defined human trace fossil footprint, or a number of these, discovered at Nahoon Point will seal the motivation to declare the area a provincial heritage site (at the least), or a world heritage site (at the most). Research to date looks promising and only time will tell ….