The recent discovery of 22,000-year-old tracks at White Sands National Park provides fascinating new details about early human technology and the timeline of migration to the Americas.
These tracks, which include both human footprints and drag marks, are some of the earliest known examples of a transport vehicle.
The Travois: An Early Transport Vehicle
The drag marks are believed to have been made by a travois, a simple but effective transport device. A travois, which is like a wheelbarrow without a wheel, consists of two long poles tied together at one end to form a V or X shape. The V-shape, or “open-ended triangle,” was made of two poles joined at the back and held by a person at the front. The X-shape involved two poles joined together to form a crossing point in the middle. The travois would have been used to carry heavy, bulky items across the landscape, which was crucial for early peoples on the move. While travois were later pulled by animals like dogs and horses, the tracks at White Sands show no evidence of animal involvement, suggesting they were exclusively human-powered at this time.
Recreating the Tracks
To confirm their hypothesis, researchers conducted an experiment. They built modern replicas of the travois designs—both the single-line V-shape and the parallel-line X-shape—and pulled them across mudflats. The tracks left by their replica travois were an exact match for the ancient drag marks found at White Sands, providing strong evidence for their interpretation. This method of experimental archaeology helped validate that the marks were indeed created by this type of primitive transport technology.
A Glimpse into Ancient Family Life
The discovery is not just about technology; it also offers a rare look into the social dynamics of these early people. The travois tracks are often found alongside human footprints, which allowed researchers to see how individuals and groups moved. In some cases, the tracks of a person pulling the travois are accompanied by a child’s smaller footprints walking alongside, painting a vivid picture of families traveling together. This suggests that these journeys were a collective effort, with the entire family involved in the migration and transport of their belongings.
Rewriting the Timeline of Human Migration
Perhaps the most significant implication of this find is what it reveals about the timing of human arrival in the Americas. For a long time, the dominant theory held that humans crossed the Bering Strait and entered the Americas around 15,000 years ago, after the ice sheets had retreated. However, the 22,000-year-old travois tracks, along with other recent discoveries, such as 23,000-year-old human footprints at the same site and 33,000-year-old stone tools in Mexico, are compelling evidence that the continent was settled much earlier. These finds collectively support a new narrative of human migration that pushes back the timeline by thousands of years, fundamentally changing our understanding of how and when the Americas were first populated.
