See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/40664484
Do Shod Humans Leave True Tracks? ARTICLE in ICHNOS · JANUARY 2009 Impact Factor: 1.08 · DOI: 10.1080/10420940802471019 · Source: OAI
READS
42
2 AUTHORS, INCLUDING: Jesper Milàn Østsjællands Museum 90 PUBLICATIONS 544 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE
All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately.
Available from: Jesper Milàn Retrieved on: 05 February 2016
This article was downloaded by: [DEFF] On: 16 January 2009 Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 789685089] Publisher Taylor & Francis Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Ichnos Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713643181
Do Shod Humans Leave True Tracks? Jesper Milàn a; Richard G. Bromley b a Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark b Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark Online Publication Date: 01 January 2009
To cite this Article Milàn, Jesper and Bromley, Richard G.(2009)'Do Shod Humans Leave True Tracks?',Ichnos,16:1,124 — 126 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/10420940802471019 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10420940802471019
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
Ichnos, 16:124–126, 2009 c Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Copyright ISSN: 1042-0940 print / 1563-5236 online DOI: 10.1080/10420940802471019
Do Shod Humans Leave True Tracks? Jesper Mil`an1 and Richard G. Bromley2 1
Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
Downloaded By: [DEFF] At: 08:01 16 January 2009
2
Incorporating footprints from shod humans into ichnotaxonomical nomenclature presents several problems in that the track maker does not actually touch the sediment, and further the wear of shoes represents a behavioral choice as well as evidence of technological developments in shoemaking. If footprints of shod humans were to be treated ichnotaxonomically, they should be regarded as traces of compound behavior comprising bipedal walking, wearing and production of shoes. Footprints of naked feet offer no restrictions in being classified into the ichnotaxonomical system. Keywords
Human footprints, footwear, undertracks ichnotaxonomy
INTRODUCTION The current interest in human ichnology initiated by the international symposium on the Quaternary footprints of hominids and other vertebrates (Kim et al., 2004), will hopefully result in increased utilization, documentation, and awareness of human footprints in both paleontological and archeological contexts. One important factor that should be kept in mind when dealing with human footprints is that they do not entirely follow the criteria of other trace fossils. Traces of modern humans include, in the broadest sense, not only footprints in sediments, but also traces of their various activities like hunting and preparing of food (Noe-Nygaard, 1989), settlements, cave paintings, sculptures and various tool communities (Kim et al., 2008). Footprints from more recent trackmakers, in addition to providing information about the stance, gait and foot morphology of the trackmaker, also reflect behavior in the form of wearing footwear as well as technical developments in shoemaking. This paper will only deal with the question of footprints from unshod versus shod humans. DISCUSSION The occurrence of footprints of humans wearing shoes in lithified Roman-age beachrock from the Greek island of Rhodes
Address correspondence to Jesper Mil`an, Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen, Oester Voldgade 10 DK-1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark. E-mail:
[email protected]
(Bromley et al., 2009) raises the interesting ichnophilosophical question: should a footprint of a shod human be considered a true track or an undertrack, and should footprints from humans wearing shoes be the subject of ichnotaxonomical nomenclature? Undertracks are defined as the deformation in the sedimentary layers subjacent to the trackmaker’s foot (Lockley, 1997). Gatesy (2003) took the discussion further, stating that, strictly speaking, only the actual sediment grains touched by the trackmaker’s foot should be regarded as the true track. It is here that the problem with shoes arises, as a shod human actually does not touch the sediment, but is separated from the tracking surface by the sole of the shoe, which in this case acts as an impermeable “sediment” layer on top of the actual tracking surface. Nadon (2001) suggested that the apparent lack of fine anatomical detail in dinosaur tracks is due to a layer of mud that adheres to the foot during walking and thereby hinders preservation of fine anatomical details. To consider footprints of shod humans as undertracks would make sense, as no anatomical details of the trackmaker’s foot, except for the general outline, are preserved, as experimental work with track and undertracks predicts (Mil´an and Bromley, 2006). For example, the tracks of a giant ground sloth from the Pleistocene Carson City tracksite, Nevada, in the late 1880s were misidentified as tracks of a giant human wearing sandals (Lockley and Hunt, 1995 and refs. therein). If, on the other hand, shoes are considered as a part of the trackmaker, then another problem arises. The morphology of the tracks of shod humans will vary fundamentally according to which footwear is in use, as human footwear comes in a wide range of morphologies, ranging from plain shoes to high heels. Further, the choice of footwear in humans reflects both a behavioral choice and a behavioral adaptation to local conditions. As a consequence of this, the same trackmaker can produce very different tracks of very different appearance, from different shapes of heels and toes to the tracks of snorkeling fins or the long sinusoidal traces of skis (Fig. 1). To apply ichnotaxonomic nomenclature to the huge variety of structures that human footwear is capable of producing, would be a meaningless occupation.
124
125
Downloaded By: [DEFF] At: 08:01 16 January 2009
DO SHOD HUMANS LEAVE TRUE TRACKS?
FIG. 1. The many faces of footprints of shod humans. (A) The footprint from a stiletto heeled shoe is able to leave puncture marks from the heel in even hard substrates. (B) Parallel meandering traces in snow produced by humans wearing skis. (C) Apparent didactyl human footprint produced by (D) RGB in Japanese free-toed boots. (E) Footprint in beach sand from a human wearing fins. If found fossilized, this could be described as the footprints from an aquatically adapted species of human. All photos by RGB.
For such a reason, it has been suggested that structures created by human civilization should be excluded from ichnonomenclatural treatment (Bertling et al., 2006; Kim et al., 2008). Nevertheless, fossil or subfossil tracks produced by shod humans, even from historical times, should by all means
be documented, described and published. As an example an imprint of a modern hobnail boot was identified in association with tracks of unshod Paleolithic trackmakers in the floor of the French cave of Niaux (Pales, 1976). However, tracks made by shod humans should not be considered a basis for
126
` AND R. G. BROMLEY J. MILAN
ichnotaxonomic nomenclature. If tracks from humans wearing shoes were to be treated ichnotaxonomically, they should then be regarded as traces of a compound behavior comprising bipedal walking, wearing and production of shoes. Given the above arguments however, imprints of naked feet offer no such restrictions to being classified into the ichnotaxonomical system. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to Martin G. Lockley and Joeng Yul Kim for promoting the study of human ichnology by editing this volume, and for their constructive reviews and comments on the manuscript. The research of JM was supported by a Ph.D. grant from the Faculty of Natural Science, University of Copenhagen.
Downloaded By: [DEFF] At: 08:01 16 January 2009
REFERENCES Bertling, M., Braddy, S., Bromley, R. G., Demathieu, G. D., Mikul´asˇ, R., Nielsen, J. K., Nielsen, K. S. S., Rindsberg, A. K., Schlirf, M., and Uchman, A. 2006. Names for trace fossils: a uniform approach. Lethaia,39: 265–286. Bromley, R. G., Uchman, A., Mil`an, J., and Nielsen, K. S. 2009. Rheotactic Macaronichnus, and human and cattle trackways in Holocene beachrock, Greece: reconstruction of palaeoshoreline orientation. Ichnos, 16: 102–116.
Gatesy, S. M. 2003. Direct and indirect track features: what sediment did a dinosaur touch? Ichnos,10: 91–98. Kim, J. Y., Kim, K.-S., Park, S. I., and Shin, M.-K. 2004. Proceedings of the international symposium on the Quaternary footprints of hominids and other vertebrates, Jeju Island, Korea, 175p. Kim, J. Y., Lockley, M. G., and Kim, K. S. 2008. Hominid ichnology: An introduction. Ichnos,15: 103–105. Lockley, M. G. 1997. The paleoecological and paleoenvironmental utility of dinosaur tracks. In Farlow, J. O. and Brett-Surman, M. K. (eds.), The Complete Dinosaur. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, pp. 554– 578. Lockley, M. G. and Hunt, A. P. 1995. Dinosaur tracks and other fossil footprints of the western United States. Columbia University Press, New York, 338 p. Mil`an, J. and Bromley, R. G. 2006. True tracks, undertracks and eroded tracks, experimental work with tetrapod tracks in laboratory and field. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 231:253– 264. Nadon, G. C. 2001. The impact of sedimentology on vertebrate track studies. In Tanke, D. H. and Carpenter, K. (eds.), Mesozoic Vertebrate Life. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, pp. 395–407. Noe-Nygaard, N. 1989. Man-made trace fossils on bones. Human Evolution, 4:461–491. Pales, L. 1976. Les impreintes de pieds humains dans les caverns. Arch´eologie Institut Pal´eontologie Humaine, 36: 1–166.
