page_title: Happisburgh footprints
section_title: Discovery
hierarchical_section_title: Happisburgh footprints / Discovery
caption_attribution_description: English: Figure 2. Location of Happisburgh. a. Map of UK showing location of Happisburgh; b. Plan of Happisburgh Site 3, exposed and recorded foreshore sediments, location of footprint surface and of borehole HC; c. Schematic cross-section of recorded sediments from Happisburgh Site 3 through to borehole HC showing stratigraphic position of footprint surface. Beds h–k are shown for borehole HC as recorded by West. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0088329.g002
context_page_description: The Happisburgh footprints were a set of fossilized hominid footprints that date to the early Pleistocene, over 800,000 years ago. They were discovered in May 2013 in a newly uncovered sediment layer of the Cromer Forest Bed on a beach at Happisburgh in Norfolk, England, and carefully photographed in 3D before being destroyed by the tide shortly afterwards.
  Results of research on the footprints were announced on 7 February 2014 and identified them as the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa.
  Before the Happisburgh discovery, the oldest known footprints in Britain were at Uskmouth in South Wales, from the Mesolithic and carbon-dated to 4,600 BCE. The oldest known hominin footprints in Europe were the Ciampate del Diavolo tracks found at the Roccamonfina volcano in Italy, dated to around 350,000 years ago.
  Winning the 2015 'Rescue Dig of the Year' award, the Happisburgh footprint discovery caught the public eye and was featured in an exhibition in London's Natural History Museum.
context_section_description: The footprints were discovered in May 2013 by Nicholas Ashton, curator at the British Museum, and Martin Bates, from Trinity St David's University, who were carrying out research as part of the Pathways to Ancient Britain (PAB) project.
  The footprints were found in sediment, partially covered by beach sand, at low tide on the foreshore at Happisburgh. The sediment had been laid down in the estuary of a long-vanished river and subsequently been covered by sand, preserving its surface. The layer of sediment underlies a cliff on the beach, but after stormy weather the protective layer of sand was washed away and the sediment exposed. The sediments are stratigraphically considered to belong to the Cromer Forest Bed unit.
  Because of the softness of the sediment, which lay below the high tide mark, tidal action eroded it, and within two weeks the footprints had been destroyed.
  Although the researchers were unable to preserve the footprints, they worked during periods of low tide, often in pouring rain, to record 3D images of all the footprints by using photogrammetry. The images were analysed by Isabelle De Groote, of Liverpool John Moores University, who was able to confirm that the hollows in the sediment were hominin footprints.
  Facts concerning the discovery were published by Ashton and other members of the research team in February 2014 in the science journal PLOS ONE.
caption: Plan of the Happisburgh site, showing exposed and recorded foreshore sediments and location of the footprint surface
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