Where is the village of Happisburgh and what is it known for?
Q: Where is the village of Happisburgh and what is it known for?
A: The village of Happisburgh is located on the coast of Norfolk and is known for having evidence of the earliest modern man, including the oldest hominin footprints in Europe.
Q: How old are the hominin footprints found on Happisburgh beach?
A: The hominin footprints found on Happisburgh beach are about 800,000 years to a million years old.
Q: Where else are hominin footprints found and how old are they?
A: The hominin footprints found on Happisburgh beach are described as "the oldest known hominin footprint surface outside Africa at between ca. 1 million and 0.78 million years ago".
Q: What has been found in Happisburgh since 2005?
A: Flint tools have been found in Happisburgh since 2005.
Q: What does the finding of flint tools in Happisburgh suggest?
A: The finding of flint tools in Happisburgh suggests that humans occupied northern Europe at least 350,000 years earlier than previously thought.
Q: How were the footprints found and why were they destroyed so quickly?
A: The footprints were found in sediment, partially covered by beach sand, at low tide on the shore at Happisburgh. Stormy weather had washed away the sand, leaving the sediment exposed. Because the sediment was soft and lay below the high tide mark, the tides quickly eroded the exposed sediment, and in two weeks the footprints had all been destroyed.
Q: How did the team work to preserve the footprints?
A: The team worked during low tides, often in pouring rain, to record 3D images of all the footprints.
