Reuters
August 20, 2007
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.
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.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=588&art_id=nw20070820183015779C298328