A lake several kilometers long and several hundred meters wide was located in a sparse birch-pine forest overgrown with grass. Herds of elephants, rhinos and ungulates would come to its muddy shores to drink and bathe. At the center of this prehistoric landscape is a small “Heidelberg people” family of Homo sapiens, the direct ancestors of Neanderthals and modern humans.

what is known

As the researchers wrote in their work, two out of three traces were left by teenagers and one by a child.

This extinct human species lived on the shores of lakes or rivers with shallow waters. According to the season, there were plants, fruits, leaves, shoots and mushrooms around the lake. From the fact that these are traces of a child and a teenager, we can conclude that the remnants of the ages were more of a family march than a raid by adult hunters.
– one of the authors, Dr. Says Flavio Altamura.

Fossilized traces from the Schöningen field / Photo: Senckenberg

One of the traces of ancient man / Photograph: Senckenberg

Researchers state that these traces are the oldest known human traces in Germany today.

The team also analyzed a series of tracks from the extinct Palaeoloxodon antiquus, a spur-toothed elephant that was the largest land animal at the time. Adult males weighed up to 13 tons.

The elephant tracks we discovered in Schöningen reach an incredible 55 centimeters long. We also came across pieces of wood on the roads that animals pressed to the ground. A trail also belongs to a rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis or Stephanorhinus hemitoechus) and is the first of this species to be discovered in Europe.
– said the head of excavations in Schöningen, Dr. Jordi Serangeli.

Footprint of a fossil elephant with wood chips / Photo: Senckenberg

Footprint of a rhino / Photo: Senckenberg