Two B.C. archaeologists made a fantastic discovery, unearthing footprints of what looks to be a family of three on a camping trip.

With the first radio carbon dating results, these footprints look to be 13,200 years old. If these tests are confirmed, that would make the footprints possibly the oldest archaeological site in B.C. In terms of North America, the footprints are very early, if not the earliest footprints found, though there are older archaeological sites in Alaska and Washington.



Removing the footprint on Calvert Island. (Photo Credit: Joanne McSporran)

The footprints were found by archaeologists Duncan McLaren and Daryl Fedje from the Hakai Institute on Calvert Island. Calvert Island is north of Vancouver Island, hugging closer to the coast, and that’s where the footprints were found. McLaren and Fedje were looking for the ancient shoreline on the island, seeking any cultural areas below the beaches. In 2014, they were doing subsurface tests and found a footprint in the bottom of one.

The archaeologists took a photo and sediment samples, but they had to finish up for the season and work on other projects. Things got really interesting when the radio carbon dating on the sediment samples came back from the lab with a date of 13,200 years.

This year in early May, McLaren and Fedje went back to the site and did larger tests. When they got about 80 cm below the surface, they hit the same place again where the earlier footprint had been found. In that general area, there were an additional 12 footprints.



The team carefully removed the footprints. (Photo Credit: Joanna McSporran)

“It was very exciting,” said McLaren. “Gave me goosebumps. It was just really pretty incredible as you scrape your trowel on the sediment and then you see these toe marks appear, and the arch of the foot, and the heel. It was really quite neat. And then we moved over a bit and you see the same thing with another footprint.”

The footprints were found in three sizes: a larger adult, smaller adult, and child. McLaren and Fedje also found a fire pit at the same depth with the footprints around them, suggesting a family was maybe huddling around the fire or cooking food.

“We think there’s probably more footprints there, but that they’re so overtrampled by other footprints that we couldn’t actually discern them,” said McLaren. The footprints that were identified were clearly defined in the light grey clay. Shortly after the footprints were made, the area must have been covered by a black sand with charcoal in it, either by waves or wind. This black sand protected the footprints, and the contrast between the sand and clay helped archaeologists to see the impressions.



The footprint is clearly defined in the grey clay. (Photo Credit: Joanne McSporran)

McLaren says that Calvert Island was also an island 13,000 years ago, meaning that the people would have had to use watercraft to get there. Though First Nations in the area used large dugout cedar canoes, at that time McLaren says there wasn’t cedar in the area, so the family may have used a skin boat like an umiak.

McLaren and Fedje are working closely with the local Heiltsuk and Wuikinuxv First Nations for the research. As for the next steps, McLaren has more lab work and testing to do. Once the time period is established and the results are duplicated, the researchers will begin turning to academic journals and the peer review process for publication. McLaren is also hoping to get back in the field, as the Hakai Institute has given them funding for another search next year.

This discovery is pretty incredible for the archaeologists, who didn’t even have footprints on their radar when they first began doing tests. “It was really quite a unique find,” says McLaren.