South Africa - World's oldest footprints moved

(25 Jun 1998) T/I: 11:15:06


South African scientists breathed a sign of relief on Tuesday (23/06) as the world's oldest human footprints were successfully plucked from a dune rock in the Langebaan Lagoon and ferried by helicopter and truck to a conservation workshop. They're due to be moved to the South Africa Museum in Capetown at the end of the week. For 117,000 years the tiny female footprints lay undiscovered on the shores of Langebaan Lagoon about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Cape Town. But since their discovery in 1995, the delicate tracks have suffered at the hands of modern man, and were also vulnerable to the rain, wind and waves. In a bid to save the prints, geologists and engineers worked last weekend to cut them out in a single block of stone. The footprints, 8 1/2 inches (20 centimeters) long, were made by a person who measured about 5-foot-3 inches (160 centimeters). This small stature led scientists to theorize they were made by a young woman. The fossil was dubbed "Eve" because of the growing belief that humans had their origin in South or South-Western Africa.


SHOWS:

LANGEBAAN LAGOON,SOUTH AFRICA 23/06
00.00 WS view from boat of site;
00.04 MS scientist working on footprint;
00.07 CU liquid being poured into hole from can;
00.10 MS scientist putting protective pad on to footprint;
00.17 SOT Dr Dave Roberts, Council for Geosciences (in English):
"They were formed on a block that had fallen away from the
cliff now when that block fell away that's when the
overlying sandstone fell of it and exposed the footprints.
But I know that they must go into the cliff unless that
person could fly, they must go into the cliff";
00.32 WS helicopter hovering over site;
00.37 CU helicopter hovering;
00.39 MS scientists attaching crate to line;
00.39 SOT Mike Van Weiringen, consulting geologist (in English):
"If it was in a safer position and could have been well
protected then it would probably have been a better idea
just to have kept it where it is";
00.46 WS aerial shot of site on coastline;
00.50 WS pans from boat to excavation;

00.55 Vision ends

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