Estimates of age, locomotion speed and possible activity from human footprints at Monte Hermoso site 1
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24215/18536387e036Keywords:
human footprints, human locomotion, hunter gatherer, middle Holocene, Pampas regionAbstract
The Monte Hermoso 1 archaeological site (Buenos Aires province, Argentina) presents an abundant record of human footprints, dated to ~ 7000 BP, which were imprinted on a mixohaline marsh. The objective of this study was to estimate the age and locomotion speed corresponding to 15 tracks of individuals, following the original data from Bayón & Politis (1996). Age estimates were made on the basis of growth curves from the literature. The estimated ages, corresponding to children and adolescents between 2.5 and 14.5 years, and possibly to 1 juvenile-young adult, generally agree with previous interpretations. The locomotion speed was estimated from the empirical relationship between dimensionless speed (Froude number) and dimensionless stride length. Estimated speeds were in the range of 3-12 km/h and could be classified into: 1) speeds compatible with those of hunting-gathering in children of similar age (≤ 3 km/h), 2) speeds compatible with comfort walking, in the range between 3.8 and 4.6 km/h, associated with a lower energy cost, perhaps for exploration of the surrounding territory, and 3) speeds> 5 km/h compatible with play, chasing a small prey, or simply escaping. The methodology used in this study to estimate locomotion speed revealed a diversity of locomotion patterns in the individuals who left their tracks at the Monte Hermoso 1 site, which could improve assessments of associated behaviors.
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