ID 19
Title Prehistoric Footprints Under the Sand
Broadcast 2003-05-06 00:00:00
Network Radio 4
Presenter Mark Whitaker
Producer Mike Hally & Janet Graves
Precis Walking on the Formby seashore some years ago, retired teacher Gordon Roberts saw some human footprints preserved in a dark layer of solidified silt, apparently running towards and the disappearing under later-deposited sediments. He brushed away the top layers to reveal more prints, among them the very large hoofprints of a species of cattle that he'd never before seen. He has made almost daily surveys along the Formby seashore ever since, looking for more prints briefly revealed by the shifting sands. He records their location, photographs and casts them, working with university and other experts to build up a picture of prehistoric life around 5000 years ago. The story of an amateur archaeologist whose investigations have excited the experts.
Duration 30
Txtime 1899-12-30 11:00:00
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Description Walking his dog along Formby beach one day, retired teacher Gordon Roberts noticed some unusual trails of footprints on an exposed patch of silt. His curiosity aroused, he began to take notes, then pictures, then plaster casts and careful measurements. Soon he found that the prints were thousands of years old, and over the following months and years he's recorded the tracks of deer, extinct wild cattle, large birds, and people - in particular, children.

But these aren't rock-hard fossils. They were baked into the silt and covered with sand and later deposits which have protected them ever since. Now erosion is uncovering these ancient silts, but what the sea reveals it also destroys - the footprints last only until the next high tide or a few weeks at most once exposed.

Gordon calls it "ephemeral archaeology". Or "extreme archaeology" because he goes out in all weathers, accompanied as always by his dog Kim, to record these fleeting remnants of prehistoric life before they disappear for ever. It's something that only an amateur archaeologist, retired and living nearby, could have the time to do.

In this programme Gordon takes us through the process of discovery, helped by his wife and plaster-caster Pat (also a retired teacher), retired archaeological chiropodist Phyllis Jackson, and academic specialists in prehistory. Their records of children's feet are particularly important - because little is known about the place of children in prehistoric society.

A group of present-day school-children join Gordon on the beach to compare their own footprints - walking, running, playing - with those of their 5,000 year old ancestors. A clue perhaps to a riddle that still puzzles him - what were those prehistoric children doing on the beach? Helping their parents? Or just playing?

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Caption1 5,000 year old footprint of an adolescent male
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Caption2 Adolescent footprint with red deer, all about 5,000 years old.
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Caption3 Gordon Roberts showing how a typical footprint emerges from older underlying layers of mud.
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Caption4 lifting a new plaster cast from a footprint shortly before the incoming tide obliterates it for ever
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Caption5 Archaeological chiropodist Phyllis Jackson interprets some of Gordon Roberts' plaster casts, presenter Mark Whitaker in centre