The Oldest American? Footprints from the Past
Bournemouth Universitys contribution to the Oldest American project is led by Professor Matthew Bennett. Matthew is particularly interested in large sedimentary basins with complex facies architecture and has spent the last 5 years working on large lacustrine or glacio-lacustrine basins in Arctic regions. His passion is reconstructing palaeo-environments from relict sediments and landforms left as clues in the landscape by environmental change. Matthew was invited to work in Mexico by Dr Silvia Gonzalez (Liverpool John Moore University) in 2003 to bring his expertise on sedimentology to bear on the palaeo-lake sediments of the Valesquillo Basin as part of a NERC funded project.
It was during this work in September 2003 that the Matthew, Silvia and Dave Huddart discovered the footprints of the Oldest American. Subsequently, Matthew has led the work to document, map and record the footprints, complimenting the work led by Oxford University on dating and in Liverpool John Moores on the archaeological context of the footprints. In January 2004 he pioneered the application of Laser Scanning technology to the study and preservation of the footprints. His subsequent collaboration with Dr Xavier Velay, School of Design, Engineering & Computing, has led to the application of modern design technology to the problem of preserving these fragile footprints for future generations. The use of Rapid Proto-Typing technology at Bournemouth University a fusion of natural science with engineering - has allowed precision reproductions of the footprints to be cast in plastic both for study and public visualisation. In 2005 this work was selected as one of 24 exhibits at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition.
Professor Bennett along with colleagues from Liverpool John Moores University and Oxford University has recently (July 2005) obtained £212,000 from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to continue the work in the Valsequillo Basin over the next three years. Why not visit the project web site to find out more? www.mexicanfootprints.co.uk
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For more details contact Professor Matthew Bennett
Selected Publications
Gonzalez, S., Huddart, D., Bennett, M.R., Swenninger, J-L., Higham,T., Bronk-Ramsey, C., Grün, G., Gonzalez-Huesca, Simon Kelley, A., Nathan, R. 2005. Human footprints in Central Mexico older than 40,000 years ago. Quaternary Science Reviews, in press.
Huddart, D., Bennett, M.R., Gonzalez, S., Xavier, V. 2005. Analysis and preservation of human and animal footprints: An example from Toluquilla, Valsequillo Basin (Central Mexico). Ichnos, in press.
