ANCIENT marks from the world’s “first ever vehicle” which pre-dates the invention of the wheel have been found in a groundbreaking discovery.
Boffins at Bournemouth University unearthed fossilised drag marks next to ancient footprints which suggest how prehistoric humans used to move heavy objects over 20,000 years ago.
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The marks, found at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, appear to be a series of parallel and single-line drag marks which are believed to be left by a device called a travois – a simple mechanism made of two wooden poles tied together.
Indigenous groups across North America are thought to have transported goods using this device – but new evidence suggests that the mechanism existed thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
The research was led by Professor Matthew Bennett, who said: “We know that our earliest ancestors must have used some form of transport to carry their possessions as they migrated around the world, but evidence in the form of wooden vehicles has rotted away.
“These drag marks give us the first indication of how they moved heavy and bulky loads around before wheeled vehicles existed.”
The tracks vary in length, with the longest reaching up to 50 meters (165 feet).
Experts identified two main types of the 22,000-year-old marks: a single line from two poles joined at one end, and two parallel lines made by two sticks attached together at the middle creating an X-shaped travois.
Footprints next to the marks indicate that humans, not animals, pulled the travois to transport goods.
Children’s footprints also often appeared near the drag marks, suggesting they walked beside the adults.
Professor Bennett added: “Many people will be familiar with pushing a shopping trolley around a supermarket, moving from location to location with children hanging on.
“This appears to be the ancient equivalent but without wheels.”
The research team even built their own travois replicas and dragged them across mudflats in Dorset, and on the Maine coast in the U.S. in order to check their findings.
The tests proved that the marks resembled the prints of a travois being used.
Dr. Sally Reynolds, a co-author of the study, said: “Every discovery at White Sands adds to our understanding of the lives of the first people to settle in the Americas.
“These people were the first migrants to travel to North America, and understanding more about how they moved around is vital to telling their story.”
The new finding of the travois prints suggests that people came to North America earlier than scientists previously thought, and highlighted the ingenuity of early humans who found methods of transporting items long before the wheel was invented.
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