A groundbreaking discovery in White Sands, New Mexico, has revealed what may be the earliest evidence of human-pulled handcarts, predating the invention of the wheel by over 17,000 years. Researchers found fossilized footprints and parallel drag marks indicating that Ice Age humans used a travois, a wooden sled-like device, to carry heavy loads.
The study published in Quaternary Science Advances analyzed fossilized tracks preserved in ancient mud at White Sands National Park. The findings suggest that prehistoric people were actively modifying their environment by developing simple transport systems long before recorded history.
Archaeologists uncovered drag marks running parallel to human footprints, extending for dozens of meters before disappearing under layers of sediment. These marks were found with numerous child-sized footprints, indicating that entire families were involved in the movement of goods. Modern experiments conducted in Dorset, UK, and Maine, US, replicated the marks using wooden poles across wet mud, supporting the theory that early humans used a travois to carry supplies.
The discovery shifts our understanding of early human ingenuity, suggesting that people engineered solutions for transporting heavy loads long before recorded history. The concept of sled-based transport may have been continuously used for thousands of years, with Indigenous communities providing insight into how early transport systems worked. This finding offers a crucial missing link in the evolution of human transport technology, highlighting early humans’ problem-solving abilities and adaptability.
Source: https://indiandefencereview.com/archaeologists-find-the-worlds-oldest-handcart-thousands-of-years-before-the-wheel-was-invented