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Egypt discovers what may be oldest human footprint

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CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian archaeologists have found what they said could be the oldest human footprint in history in the country’s western desert, the Arab country’s antiquities’ chief said on Monday.

“This could go back about two million years,” said Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. “It could be the most important discovery in Egypt,” he told Reuters.

Archaeologists found the footprint, imprinted on mud and then hardened into rock, while exploring a prehistoric site in Siwa, a desert oasis.

Scientists are using carbon tests on plants found in the rock to determine its exact age, Hawass said.

Khaled Saad, the director of prehistory at the council, said that based on the age of the rock where the footprint was found, it could date back even further than the renowned 3-million year-old fossil Lucy, the partial skeleton of an ape-man, found in Ethiopia in 1974. (emphasis added)

Most archaeological interest in Egypt is focused on the time of the pharaohs.

Previously, the earliest human archaeological evidence from Egypt dated back around 200,000 years, Saad said.

Comments
[…] also: Egypt discovers what may be oldest human footprint […]Human footprints found from 800,000 years ago in Britain? | Uncommon Descent
February 8, 2014
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Read Marvin Lubenow, _Bone of Contention
BoneS of Contention, I believe.Atom
August 21, 2007
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Dizzy said: "Carbon dating - I did not read C-14 dating?" Will you please let me know how many different types of "carbon dating" is there? I am always eager to learn something new. "Come on, the fossils are REAL, the question is just, what story do they tell?" I am still busy trying to find out who on UD claimed that fossils are NOT REAL. Will someone help me please?inunison
August 21, 2007
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Ha ha ... carbon dating or otherwise....It's all depends on what they believe things to be. If it is unquestionably human, "modern human", then use carbon dating. If not, use potassium-argon, or whatever. Read Marvin Lubenow, _Bone of Contention_, for more examples of preconceived ideas about "human" fossils of all kinds.MatthewTan
August 21, 2007
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Why not wait till you could read the original scientific report(s)? Carbon dating - I did not read C-14 dating? And in the context of front loading, are not the fossils just the evidence we need? Come on, the fossils are REAL, the question is just, what story do they tell?Dizzy
August 21, 2007
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Scientists are using carbon tests on plants found in the rock to determine its exact age, Hawass said.”
I find it a bit curious that they would want to use carbon dating... now... in this case. Isn't carbon dating peaked at about 50kya to 100kya (in theory anyway). What's wrong with the igneous isotope dates? ;) A bit slantttted... ain't it?JGuy
August 20, 2007
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I took the article to mean modern human but that may or may not be what they meant. It's kinda like the "carbon tests" quote. Anyone with a basic knowledge of radiometric dating techniques knows that this must be simply a "catch-all" statement since 14C dating goes back thousands, not millions of years, as they believe to be true of the site. We'll see what happens as this is fleshed out in further reports and hopefully some journal pubs. This will certainly be a story to watch as it develops. The ScubaredneckThe Scubaredneck
August 20, 2007
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Or a KP271. Geoff, I don't know. I assumed homo sapiens, since "hominid" is usually used for the more general upright ape-like species. Scuba?Atom
August 20, 2007
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"Scientists are using carbon tests on plants found in the rock to determine its exact age, Hawass said." I sense another skull 1470 on the horizon.Charlie
August 20, 2007
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Just a question for clarification. Are they using "human" to mean homo sapiens or are they using "human" to mean a general category of ape-like species.geoffrobinson
August 20, 2007
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I just made it up. It is basically what we've come to find out recently, since we got rid of Lucy, Homo Habilis, and now modern humans possibly predating Australopithecus. It is what honest Darwinists should put on textbooks, since they're going to feed our kids their dogma anyway. :)Atom
August 20, 2007
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Atom, From whence came this quote? The ScubaredneckThe Scubaredneck
August 20, 2007
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"Ape-like Ancestor to Human evolution is a FACT, as sure as gravity, even though all the evidences we used to establish this fact have turned out to be wrong." ...Now THAT should be made into a textbook sticker.Atom
August 20, 2007
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