Forensic evidence

At the crossroads of three continents, the footprints of many civilisations are evident in the wealth of treasures at every turn

Archaeologists in Morocco have unearthed more than 80 human footprints dating back around 100,000 years and believed to be the oldest in North Africa.

The footprints, probably left by five homo sapiens, including children, were discovered on the coast of Larache, a city 90 kilometers south of Tangier, by archaeologists from Morocco, Spain, France, and Germany.

Footprints laid down by Ice-Age hunter-gatherers and recently discovered in a U.S. desert are shedding new light on North America's earliest human inhabitants.

Humans reached America 7,000 years earlier than previously thought. Until now, it was thought that the first settlers arrived about 16,000 years ago.

Archaeologists have found dozens of human footprints in New Mexico that date between 23,000 and 21,000 years ago.

The prints were left in the mud on the shores of a lake that has dried up today.

Scientists in Chile say they have found a footprint dating from at least 15,600 years ago, making it the earliest such sign of man's presence in the Americas. 

A pair of human footprints from 7,500 years ago was found in the Aktopraklık mound where the 15th year of excavations have been completed.

The earliest known footprints left by an animal on Earth, dating back at least 541 million years, have been uncovered in China, a study said June 7.

Vandals have damaged a footprint of a dinosaur that has remained for 115 million years in the rocks of a state park in Victoria, Australia, according to the France press and the DPA.

The security personnel at the Benaran Sea Park in Inverlack - one of the few "dinosaur" ice age sites in the world - has found that parts of the footprint are broken off by a hammer.

Police officers visited the scene where Diyarbak?r Bar Association head Tahir Elçi was killed on Nov. 28 a full two days after the incident occurred, collecting just 43 out of 83 pieces of evidence in the area after they were fired upon by unknown perpetrators.

Footprints dating back to the Neolithic period (6,400 B.C.) have been discovered during excavations in Barçın tumulus in the northwestern province of Bursa’s Yenişehir district.

Koç University academic, Rana Özbal, said works had been continuing in Barçın tumulus since 2007 under the coordination of the Culture and Tourism Ministry and the Dutch Research Institute.